PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 30: Statistics
Monday, August 8, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 520 B, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Sampling biodiversity inventory and monitoring.
Brown, Jennifer*,1, Overton, Jacob2, Price, Robbie2, 1 University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand2 Landcare Research, Hamilton, New Zealand
ABSTRACT- Information needs for biological conservation and ecosystem management are complex. Information is needed at a range of spatial scales, and range in levels of generality. Site-specific information on individual species may be required at a local scale with high specificity (what species are present and in what abundance?), whereas information for management decisions made at a regional level would have broader spatial scales and more generality (how much wetland is there in the region?). Recent advances in computing ability and interest in more robust descriptions of ecosystems give an opportunity to address some fundamental questions of survey design. What survey design gives high optimality and what design gives high generality? We used a GIS-orientated simulation study to address these issues of generality and optimality using designs based on sampling with unequal probability of selection and Horvitz-Thompson estimators. We have developed a GIS-program that can be used to assist in designing surveys.
Key words: survey design, unequal probability sampling