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Assessing the design and power of capture-recapture studies to estimate population growth rate and abundance of the endangered Oceania humpback whale population

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Date
2015
Author
Carroll, Emma Louise
Brooks, Lyndon
Baker, C. Scott
Burns, Daniel
Garrigue, Claire
Hauser, Nan
Jackson, Jennifer
Poole, Michael
Fewster, Rachel
Keywords
Capture-recapture
DNA profile
Heterogeneity
Megaaptera novaeangliae
QH301 Biology
GC Oceanography
Metadata
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Abstract
Capture-recapture studies offer a powerful tool to assess abundance, survival and population rate of change (λ). A previous capture-recapture study, based on DNA profiles, estimated that the IUCN-listed Endangered Oceania population of humpback whales had a superpopulation size of 4,329 whales (95% CL 3345, 5315) and λ = 1.03 (95% CL 0.90-1.18) for the period 1999-2005. This low estimate of λ contrasts with the high estimated λ of the neighbouring east Australia population (1.11; 95% CL 1.05-1.13). A future assessment of Oceania humpbacks through capture-recapture methodology has been proposed to meet 3 objectives: (1) estimate population size with a coefficient of variation (CV) of <20%, and detect if λ is significantly different from (2) 1.00 or (3) λ of east Australia. The proposed survey design involves identifying whales through DNA profiles on principal breeding grounds within Oceania in proportion to the abundance of whales on these grounds over the 10-12 week wintering period, to minimise heterogeneity between individuals and to maximise capture probabilities. Simulations of the idealised survey design incorporating data from the previous surveys (1999-2005) with three new survey years were conducted under a range of scenarios for the 'true' demographic status of the population. Simulations of the entire Oceania region showed that the proposed design will give sufficient power to meet (1) under all scenarios, meet (2) if the true λ≥1.05 and meet (3) if the true λ ≤1.05. Region-specific simulations suggested there was scope to test for differences in recovery between principal breeding sites within Oceania.
Citation
Carroll , E L , Brooks , L , Baker , C S , Burns , D , Garrigue , C , Hauser , N , Jackson , J , Poole , M & Fewster , R 2015 , ' Assessing the design and power of capture-recapture studies to estimate population growth rate and abundance of the endangered Oceania humpback whale population ' , Endangered Species Research , vol. 28 , pp. 147-162 . https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00686
Publication
Endangered Species Research
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00686
ISSN
1863-5407
Type
Journal article
Rights
© The authors 2015. Open Access under Creative Commons by Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are unrestricted. Authors and original publication must be credited.
Description
Funding for Open Access publication was provided by the University of St. Andrews.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7392

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