Darryl MacKenzie will deliver his four-day workshop on species
occupancy/occurrence estimation at the Centre for Research into
Ecological and Environmental Modelling this summer at the University of
St. Andrews.
The presence or absence of a species across a set of landscape units is
a fundamental concept used widely in ecology (e.g., as a monitoring
metric, species range or distribution, habitat modelling, resource
selection probability functions, metapopulation studies, biodiversity
and species co-occurrence). An important sampling issue, however, is
that a species may not always be detected when present at a landscape
unit. This will result in "false absences" causing parameter estimates
to be biased if unaccounted for, possibly leading to misleading results
and conclusions, even with moderate levels of imperfect detection.
This workshop will cover many of the latest methods for modelling
patterns and dynamics of species occurrence in a landscape while
accounting for the imperfect detection of the species. Participants will
be introduced to available software through worked examples, and there
will be special emphasis on aspects of study design. While primarily
aimed at the beginner and intermediate level, more experienced
researchers will also benefit from attending.
In this 4-day workshop we shall cover,
* estimating and modelling occupancy at a single point in time
* estimating and modelling changes in occupancy over time
* using occupancy-type metrics in multi-species and community studies
* key aspects to designing an efficient occupancy study
* available computer software with worked examples
Computer sessions take place in our modern computer classroom (attached
to the seminar room); participants can use our computers or bring their
own laptop computers.
Further details plus registration information is available at
http://www.ruwpa.st-and.ac.uk/distance.workshops/occupancy09.html
--
Eric Rexstad
Research Unit for Wildlife Population Assessment
Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling
University of St. Andrews
St. Andrews Scotland KY16 9LZ
+44 (0)1334 461833
The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland : No SC013532
