Designing occupancy studies: general advice and allocating survey effort

Summary The fraction of sampling units in a landscape where a target species is present (occupancy) is an extensively used concept in ecology. Yet in many applications the species will not always be detected in a sampling unit even when present, resulting in biased estimates of occupancy. Given that sampling units are surveyed repeatedly within a relatively short timeframe, a number of similar methods have now been developed to provide unbiased occupancy estimates. However, practical guidance on the efficient design of occupancy studies has been lacking. In this paper we comment on a number of general issues related to designing occupancy studies, including the need for clear objectives that are explicitly…

• RS
  Royal Society
• MF
  Marsden Fund