Dear Research Gate community,

I’m conducting a study on how different management practices in wetland (ponds) affects the diversity and abundance of species in the wetlands. The different ponds are next to each other. Some ponds are control without any management practices. The water in the treatment ponds is regularly drawn down and filled up again with water from the river. We recorded the waterbird species number and abundance of each pond regularly (record the bird data of all the ponds at the same time for each survey).

- In the first year, we conducted a baseline study in which no treatment was done for all the ponds (data were collected monthly).

- In the second year, we conducted the treatment (operational study), and data of birds were collected weekly.

We’re now trying to study:

1) first, if there is any difference between the treatment ponds and control ponds during the operation

2) if there is any difference between baseline study and operational study of the same pond.

We wonder what kind of statistics are suitable for statistically analysing our data.

Some problems we are encountering is:

1. The data do look like normally distributed. The data collected are time series data, there are natural seasonal variation in the number of waterbirds in our region (a lot of migratory birds in fall and winter). How to take into account of influence of the time of survey.

2. The sample frequency for baseline year (12 times) and operational year is different (52 times), how to compare the difference between baseline and operational year.

Highly appreciate any help or suggestion!

Best regards