Highlighting the trend within a cloud of points

Trends in scatter plot clouds could be difficult to appreciate. This is an intelligent way of showing the (mean) trend hidden within the messy cloud of points. The size of the black dots shows the sample size with which the mean was calculated. Note also the clever use of gray to give visual preference to the (more convincing) black dots.

Reference Webb, T.J., Gaston, K.J., Hannah, L. and Woodward, F.I. (2006) Coincident scales of forest feedback on climate and conservation in a diversity hot spot. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 273: 757-765. (download free pdf from journal website)

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On the use of error bars

This and other interesting figures and tables illustrate an informative paper by Cumming et al. on to use error bars in scientific plotting.

Reference: Cumming, G., Fidler, F. and Vaux, D.L. (2007) Error bars in experimental biology. The Journal of Cell Biology, 177: 7–11. (download pdf) (JCB website)

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Diagram with photo and graph

This figure is very interesting because it combines in a clear way information about study species, material and methods and results.

Reference Kozak HK, Graham CH and Wiens JJ (2008) Integrating GIS-based environmental data into evolutionary biology.Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23 (3): 141-148. (download pdf) (TREE website)

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Panels in front of a map

A clear way of showing plots in its spatial contexts without a waste of space. The light gray of the map precludes the compound graph to become messy. Note also the interesting small shaded histograms inside each panel.

Reference LaDeau SL, Kilpatrick AM & Marra PP. (2007) West Nile virus emergence and large-scale declines of North American bird populations. Nature 447:710-713. doi:10.1038/nature05829 (download pdf) (Nature webpage)

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Movement in 3D

This graph allows the visualization of animal movement in space (x, y) and time (z). Note that, in this way, trajectories of animals returning to same locations (e.g. showing homing behavior) do not overlap because the z axis.


Reference Cushman, S. A., Chase, M. and Griffin, C. 2005. Elephants in space and time. Oikos 109: 331-341. (download pdf) (IngentaConnect)

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Histograms in a scatter plot

An interesting way of visualizing the frequency distribution behind the mean  or other aggregated value displayed as a point in a scatter plot.

Reference Montoya, J.M & Solé, R.V. (2003) Topological properties of food webs: from real data to community assembly models. Oikos 102: 614–622. (download pdf) (IngentaConnect)

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