التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: |
Assessment of temporal instability in the applied ecology and conservation evidence base. |
المؤلفون: |
Brisco, Elizabeth, Kulinskaya, Elena, Koricheva, Julia |
المصدر: |
Research Synthesis Methods; May2024, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p398-412, 15p |
مصطلحات موضوعية: |
APPLIED ecology, ENVIRONMENTAL protection, ENVIRONMENTAL management, TRENDS, STATISTICAL significance |
مستخلص: |
Outcomes of meta-analyses are increasingly used to inform evidence-based decision making in various research fields. However, a number of recent studies have reported rapid temporal changes in magnitude and significance of the reported effects which could make policy-relevant recommendations from meta-analyses to quickly go out of date. We assessed the extent and patterns of temporal trends in magnitude and statistical significance of the cumulative effects in meta-analyses in applied ecology and conservation published between 2004 and 2018. Of the 121 meta-analyses analysed, 93% showed a temporal trend in cumulative effect magnitude or significance with 27% of the datasets exhibiting temporal trends in both. The most common trend was the early study effect when at least one of the first 5 years effect size estimates exhibited more than 50% magnitude difference to the subsequent estimate. The observed temporal trends persisted in majority of datasets once moderators were accounted for. Only 5 datasets showed significant changes in sample size over time which could potentially explain the observed temporal change in the cumulative effects. Year of publication of meta-analysis had no significant effect on presence of temporal trends in cumulative effects. Our results show that temporal changes in magnitude and statistical significance in applied ecology are widespread and represent a serious potential threat to use of meta-analyses for decision-making in conservation and environmental management. We recommend use of cumulative meta-analyses and call for more studies exploring the causes of the temporal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
|
Copyright of Research Synthesis Methods is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
قاعدة البيانات: |
Complementary Index |