A comparison of estimates of relative abundance from a weakly structured mass-participation bird atlas survey and a robustly designed monitoring scheme

Szabo, Judit K., Fuller, Richard A. and Possingham, Hugh P. (2012) A comparison of estimates of relative abundance from a weakly structured mass-participation bird atlas survey and a robustly designed monitoring scheme. Ibis, 154 3: 468-479.


Author Szabo, Judit K.
Fuller, Richard A.
Possingham, Hugh P.
Title A comparison of estimates of relative abundance from a weakly structured mass-participation bird atlas survey and a robustly designed monitoring scheme
Journal name Ibis  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank B)   Check publisher's open access policy
Publication date 2012-07
Sub-type Article
DOI 10.1111/j.1474-919X.2012.01229.x
Volume number 154
Issue number 3
ISSN 0019-1019;1474-919X
Start page 468
End page 479
Total pages 12
Place of publication Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
Collection year 2013
Language eng
Abstract Estimates of population size are frequently used in conservation. Volunteer-conducted surveys are often the only source of information available, but their reliability is unclear. We compare data from a weakly structured national bird atlas collected by volunteer surveyors free to choose where and when to visit with data from an independent suite of monitoring surveys that used a stratified sampling design. We focus on the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia, a region that has lost most of its native vegetation. Both datasets comprise several thousand 20-min 2-ha searches carried out between 1999 and 2007. The atlas dataset reported more species, and covered habitats more comprehensively, but showed greater variability in the temporal and spatial distribution of survey effort. However, after we restricted the atlas dataset to native eucalypt woodlands, reporting rates from the two schemes were very strongly correlated. The structured surveys tended to record more species that are normally detected by call and the unstructured surveys recorded more species using edges and open habitats. Minimum population estimates from the two datasets agreed very well. The strength of concordance depended on whether overflying birds were included, highlighting the importance of distinguishing such records in future surveys. We conclude that appropriate calibration using selected regional surveys, including surveys to estimate absolute densities, can enable volunteercollected and weakly structured atlas data to be used to generate robust occupancy and minimum population estimates for many species at a regional scale.
Keyword Australia
Bird surveys
Mount Lofty Ranges
Population estimates
Volunteer-collected data
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Confirmed Code
Institutional Status UQ
Additional Notes Article first published online: 28 March 2012.

Document type: Journal Article
Sub-type: Article
Collections: Official 2013 Collection
School of Biological Sciences Publications
 
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