title: Common structure in panels of short ecological time-series.
abstract: Typically, in many studies in ecology, epidemiology, biomedicine and others, we are confronted with panels of short time-series of which we are interested in obtaining a biologically meaningful grouping. Here, we propose a bootstrap approach to test whether the regression functions or the variances of the error terms in a family of stochastic regression models are the same. Our general setting includes panels of time-series models as a special case. We rigorously justify the use of the test by investigating its asymptotic properties, both theoretically and through simulations. The latter confirm that for finite sample size, bootstrap provides a better approximation than classical asymptotic theory. We then apply the proposed tests to the mink-muskrat data across 81 trapping regions in Canada. Ecologically interpretable groupings are obtained, which serve as a necessary first step before a fuller biological and statistical analysis of the food chain interaction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, London School of Economics, UK.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Finkenstädt
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Stenseth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000502:physiology; D002170:Canada; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D008907:Mink / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013997:Time Factors