Dear All,

We are pleased to announce the publication of the following paper:

Morteo E., A. Rocha-Olivares, y R. Morteo. 2012. Sensitivity analysis of 
residency and site fidelity estimations to variations in sampling effort and 
individual catchability. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 83:487-495. ISSN: 
1870-3453

Abstract:
Mark-recapture techniques are fundamental for assessing marine mammal 
population dynamics and individual temporal patterns. Since biases imposed by 
field conditions are generally unknown, we simulated variations in sampling 
effort (m) and maximum individual catchability (rmax) to analyze their effects 
on residency levels measured through the number of recaptures (occurrence, O), 
duration of stay (permanence, P), and average recurrence (periodicity, I) 
relative to a reference level of exhaustive daily sampling frequency. The 
number or recorded individuals (Dr) was also used to determine the performance 
of the simulations. Results for standardized (s) parameters showed that 
occurrences (Os) were proportional to m and were not influenced by rmax. 
Individual permanence (Ps) and individual periodicity (Is) were 8-49% and 
3-11.74 times lower than expected, respectively, depending on m and rmax. Also, 
Os, Ps, and Is were not influenced by study duration, thus inter-study 
comparisons are feasible if m and rmax are similar. Dr was 68-92% (rmax= 0.01) 
and 1-8% (rmax= 1.0) lower than expected depending on m. Longer studies were 
more accurate but greater effort did not significantly increase Dr estimates. 
The use of bimonthly sampling frequencies (m= 0.07) was barely accurate and 
predictions for incomplete datasets were poor. Survey field data were also 
analyzed from 14 published studies on 4 dolphin species and compared to daily 
sampling frequencies; resulting values for Os, Ps, and Dr were 62.4-93.3%, 
11.6-66.4%, and 2.4-33.8% lower than expected, respectively; also Is was 
2.3-7.3 times lower than expected. The model produced Dr values that were 
similar to population estimates from empirical data, and bias was smaller than 
15% in 87.5% of the cases, thus simulation accuracy was deemed acceptable. 

Key words: population dynamics, occurrence, permanence, periodicity, 
simulations, dolphins. 
   
The entire contents of the journal may be downloaded from the official site 
(PDFs):
http://www.revistas.unam.mx/index.php/bio

This paper (PDF) is also available directly through the author's web-page:
http://www.uv.mx/personal/emorteo/publicaciones/

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any comments or questions.

Eduardo Morteo, Dr.

Head Researcher
Marine Mammal Laboratory

Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries
Universidad Veracruzana

617 Calle Hidalgo, Col. Río Jamapa, Boca del Río, Veracruz, Mexico. CP 94290

Ph: +52 (229) 956 72 27 Ext. 114
Fax: +52 (229) 956 70 70

E-mail: [email protected]

http://www.uv.mx/icmp
http://www.uv.mx/personal/emorteo

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