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Abundance Estimation from Multiple Photo Surveys: Confidence Distributions and Reduced Likelihoods for Bowhead Whales off Alaska
Author(s) -
Schweder Tore
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
biometrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.298
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1541-0420
pISSN - 0006-341X
DOI - 10.1111/j.0006-341x.2003.00112.x
Subject(s) - confidence interval , statistics , abundance (ecology) , population , mathematics , maximum likelihood , parametric statistics , confidence distribution , estimation , environmental science , ecology , demography , biology , management , sociology , economics
Summary . Maximum likelihood estimates of abundance are obtained from repeated photographic surveys of a closed stratified population with naturally marked and unmarked individuals. Capture intensities are assumed log‐linear in stratum, year, and season. In the chosen model, an approximate confidence distribution for total abundance of bowhead whales, with an accompanying likelihood reduced of nuisance parameters, is found from a parametric bootstrap experiment. The confidence distribution depends on the assumed study protocol. A confidence distribution that is exact (except for the effect of discreteness) is found by conditioning in the unstratified case without unmarked individuals.