scholarly journals An Approximate Bayesian Method Applied to Estimating the Trajectories of Four British Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) Populations from Pup Counts

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Lonergan ◽  
Dave Thompson ◽  
Len Thomas ◽  
Callan Duck

For British grey seals, as with many pinniped species, population monitoring is implemented by aerial surveys of pups at breeding colonies. Scaling pup counts up to population estimates requires assumptions about population structure; this is straightforward when populations are growing exponentially but not when growth slows, since it is unclear whether density dependence affects pup survival or fecundity. We present an approximate Bayesian method for fitting pup trajectories, estimating adult population size and investigating alternative biological models. The method is equivalent to fitting a density-dependent Leslie matrix model, within a Bayesian framework, but with the forms of the density-dependent effects as outputs rather than assumptions. It requires fewer assumptions than the state space models currently used and produces similar estimates. We discuss the potential and limitations of the method and suggest that this approach provides a useful tool for at least the preliminary analysis of similar datasets.

2004 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Correigh M Greene ◽  
Timothy J Beechie

Restoring salmon populations depends on our ability to predict the consequences of improving aquatic habitats used by salmon. Using a Leslie matrix model for chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) that specifies transitions among spawning nests (redds), streams, tidal deltas, nearshore habitats, and the ocean, we compared the relative importance of different habitats under three density-dependent scenarios: juvenile density independence, density-dependent mortality within streams, delta, and nearshore, and density-dependent migration among streams, delta, and nearshore. Each scenario assumed density dependence during spawning. We examined how these scenarios influenced priorities for habitat restoration using a set of hypothetical watersheds whose habitat areas could be systematically varied, as well as the Duwamish and Skagit rivers. In all watersheds, the three scenarios shared high sensitivity to changes in in nearshore and ocean mortality and produced similar responses to changes in other parameters controlling mortality (i.e., habitat quality). However, the three scenarios exhibited striking variation in population response to changes in habitat area (i.e., capacity). These findings indicate that nearshore habitat relationships may play significant roles for salmon populations and that the relative importance of restoring habitat area will depend on the mechanism of density dependence influencing salmon stocks.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arild Wikan

A discrete age-structured semelparous Leslie matrix model where density dependence is included both in the fecundity and in the survival probabilities is analysed. Depending on strength of density dependence, we show in the precocious semelparous case that the nonstationary dynamics may indeed be rich, ranging from SYC (a dynamical state where the whole population is in one age class only) dynamics to cycles of low period where all age classes are populated. Quasiperiodic and chaotic dynamics have also been identified. Moreover, outside parameter regions where SYC dynamics dominates, we prove that the transfer from stability to instability goes through a supercritical Neimark−Sacker bifurcation, and it is further shown that when the population switches from possessing a precocious to a delayed semelparous life history both stability properties and the possibility of periodic dynamics become weaker.


Parasitology ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Scott

SUMMARYThe population dynamics of outbred laboratory mice in indoor enclosures in the absence and presence of a naturally transmitted direct life-cycle nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus Dujardin 1845 were reported previously. This manuscript presents further information on the age and sex structure of the populations, results of experiments designed to estimate the density-dependent effect of the parasite on host survival and reproduction, and a mathematical model of both uninfected and infected mouse populations. In the uninfected mouse population, survival of female mice was age- and density-independent, survival of male mice was age-dependent and density-independent, and recruitment was density-dependent. Independent experiments revealed that the parasite had no density-dependent effect on mouse reproduction, but had density-dependent effects on both acute and chronic survival of mice. An age-structured Leslie matrix model captured the exponential growth and plateau of the uninfected mouse population. Modification of the model to incorporate the effects of the parasite provided a good fit to the data from the infected populations, supporting the hypothesis that density-dependent effects of the parasite on host survival could lead to regulation of host abundance.


Insects ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Mrganić ◽  
Renata Bažok ◽  
Katarina Mikac ◽  
Hugo Benítez ◽  
Darija Lemic

Western corn rootworm (WCR) is the worst pest of maize in the United States, and since its spread through Europe, WCR is now recognized as the most serious pest affecting maize production. After the beetle’s first detection in Serbia in 1992, neighboring countries such as Croatia have established a national monitoring program. For more than two decades WCR adult population abundance and variability was monitored. With traditional density monitoring, more recent genetic monitoring, and the newest morphometric monitoring of WCR populations, Croatia possesses a great deal of knowledge about the beetle’s invasion process over time and space. Croatia’s position in Europe is unique as no other European nation has demonstrated such a detailed and complete understanding of an invasive insect. The combined use of traditional monitoring (attractant cards), which can be effectively used to predict population abundance, and modern monitoring procedures, such as population genetics and geometric morphometrics, has been effectively used to estimate inter- and intra-population variation. The combined application of traditional and modern monitoring techniques will enable more efficient control and management of WCR across Europe. This review summarizes the research on WCR in Croatia from when it was first detected in 1992 until 2018. An outline of future research needs is provided.


Author(s):  
Yang Zeng

Abstract Due to the flexibility and feasibility of addressing ill-posed problems, the Bayesian method has been widely used in inverse heat conduction problems (IHCPs). However, in the real science and engineering IHCPs, the likelihood function of the Bayesian method is commonly computationally expensive or analytically unavailable. In this study, in order to circumvent this intractable likelihood function, the approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is expanded to the IHCPs. In ABC, the high dimensional observations in the intractable likelihood function are equalized by their low dimensional summary statistics. Thus, the performance of the ABC depends on the selection of summary statistics. In this study, a machine learning-based ABC (ML-ABC) is proposed to address the complicated selections of the summary statistics. The Auto-Encoder (AE) is a powerful Machine Learning (ML) framework which can compress the observations into very low dimensional summary statistics with little information loss. In addition, in order to accelerate the calculation of the proposed framework, another neural network (NN) is utilized to construct the mapping between the unknowns and the summary statistics. With this mapping, given arbitrary unknowns, the summary statistics can be obtained efficiently without solving the time-consuming forward problem with numerical method. Furthermore, an adaptive nested sampling method (ANSM) is developed to further improve the efficiency of sampling. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated with two IHCP cases.


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