Workshops

The Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM) is delivering an online workshop ‘introduction to distance sampling’ via live web conference. This workshop, in 10 meetings over two weeks, address the fundamentals of distance sampling.  We introduce the concept of a detection function, understand how to estimate probability of detection when detectability is imperfect.  The fundamental principles of this method also known as conventional distance sampling, forms the foundation upon which more advanced methods are based.

Are you concerned about missing animals on the transect line or point? This is the workshop for you!

Conventional distance sampling methods assume that all animals at zero distance are detected with certainty. However, in some situations this assumption is violated, and some animals are missed, causing a negative bias in the density and abundance estimates.

This occurs on some shipboard surveys of marine mammals, for example, where animals may be missed on the trackline because they are underwater while the survey vessel passes, or because the sea conditions are rough so that even some animals right on the line are missed. Bias due to the former (being underwater and so not available for detection) is often called availability bias and the latter perception bias.

Good survey design is critical for obtaining reliable results in distance sampling surveys and meeting survey objectives. This workshop expands on the basic theory provided in our introductory workshops to demonstrate how our latest software can be used to generate optimal survey designs while respecting budgetary and logistical constraints. We will demonstrate survey design using our R package dssd, and investigate design optimisation and the implications of deviations from our design assumptions using our latest simulation package dsims. We will also demonstrate the use of QGIS to obtain requisite input information.