New publication: Solving statistical challenges in monitoring amphibian populations

There are many sampling and statistical challenges to evaluating the effects of management actions on a community of often cryptic and occasionally rare species. ARMI PIs Susan Walls and Hardin Waddle teamed with USGS statistician Robert Dorazio to develop an extension of a single species model to estimate simultaneous temporal changes in probabilities of detection, occupancy, colonization, extinction and species turnover using ARMI data collected in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Louisiana from 2002 – 2006.

The statistical modeling approach is reported in a recent issue of The Journal of Wildlife Management. The paper demonstrates how the flexibility and utility of occupancy models makes them such a valuable tool for asking the different kinds of questions that are relevant to resource managers.

Susan C. Walls, J. Hardin Waddle and Robert M. Dorazio. 2011. Estimating Occupancy Dynamics in an Anuran Assemblage from Louisiana, USA. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 75(4):751-761. 2011.