Devenish-Nelson, E.S. and Harris, S. and Soulsbury, C.D. and Richards, S.A. and Stephens, P.A. (2010) 'Uncertainty in population growth rates : determining confidence intervals from point estimates of parameters.', PLoS ONE., 5 (10). e13628.
Abstract
Background Demographic models are widely used in conservation and management, and their parameterisation often relies on data collected for other purposes. When underlying data lack clear indications of associated uncertainty, modellers often fail to account for that uncertainty in model outputs, such as estimates of population growth. Methodology/Principal Findings We applied a likelihood approach to infer uncertainty retrospectively from point estimates of vital rates. Combining this with resampling techniques and projection modelling, we show that confidence intervals for population growth estimates are easy to derive. We used similar techniques to examine the effects of sample size on uncertainty. Our approach is illustrated using data on the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, a predator of ecological and cultural importance, and the most widespread extant terrestrial mammal. We show that uncertainty surrounding estimated population growth rates can be high, even for relatively well-studied populations. Halving that uncertainty typically requires a quadrupling of sampling effort. Conclusions/Significance Our results compel caution when comparing demographic trends between populations without accounting for uncertainty. Our methods will be widely applicable to demographic studies of many species.
Item Type: | Article |
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Full text: | (VoR) Version of Record Available under License - Creative Commons Attribution. Download PDF (846Kb) |
Status: | Peer-reviewed |
Publisher Web site: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013628 |
Publisher statement: | Copyright: © 2010 Devenish Nelson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Date accepted: | No date available |
Date deposited: | 24 January 2012 |
Date of first online publication: | 25 October 2010 |
Date first made open access: | No date available |
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