Conference Program Home
  My Program

All Times EDT

Abstract Details

Activity Number: 69 - Statistical Methods in Ecology
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Sunday, August 7, 2022 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistics and the Environment
Abstract #322426
Title: Temporal Preferential Sampling for Population Dynamics
Author(s): Michael Richard Schwob* and Mevin Hooten and Travis McDevitt-Galles
Companies: University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas at Austin and National Wildlife Health Center, USGS
Keywords: preferential sampling; abundance; population dynamics; multi-species; time series
Abstract:

Ecologists, population biologists, and conservation agencies often study population dynamics to evaluate carrying capacities and population growth rates. Because it is usually infeasible to count all individuals within a population, abundance models are used to analyze the investigator's count data throughout a study period. However, if count data are collected seasonally in a way that depends on population dynamics, a traditional abundance model may overestimate or underestimate abundance during periods with less count data. We developed an abundance model that accounts for preferential sampling in time, which produces less biased inference for the true abundance during periods when less count data are available. We extend this method to the multi-species context, where abundance among species may be correlated and sampling frequency may not be tied to a single species. Our proposed method accommodates multiple species and provides inference that is less biased by irregular sampling patterns. We illustrate our method through simulation and a case study of mosquito abundance across the United States, and we demonstrate the improvement of temporal abundance forecasts.


Authors who are presenting talks have a * after their name.

Back to the full JSM 2022 program