title: Permutation Tests of Hierarchical Cluster Analyses of Carrion Communities and Their Potential Use in Forensic Entomology.
abstract: Forensic entomologists can use carrion communities' ecological succession data to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI). Permutation tests of hierarchical cluster analyses of these data provide a conceptual method to estimate part of the PMI, the post-colonization interval (post-CI). This multivariate approach produces a baseline of statistically distinct clusters that reflect changes in the carrion community composition during the decomposition process. Carrion community samples of unknown post-CIs are compared with these baseline clusters to estimate the post-CI. In this short communication, I use data from previously published studies to demonstrate the conceptual feasibility of this multivariate approach. Analyses of these data produce series of significantly distinct clusters, which represent carrion communities during 1- to 20-day periods of the decomposition process. For 33 carrion community samples, collected over an 11-day period, this approach correctly estimated the post-CI within an average range of 3.1 days.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, 4400 University Dr., Fairfax Virginia, 22030.
authors.forename: Joris L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: van der Ham
keywords: community dynamics; forensic entomology; multivariate analysis; post-colonization interval; postmortem interval