Accounting for observation processes across multiple levels of uncertainty improves inference of species distributions and guides adaptive sampling of environmental DNA.

ABSTRACT: Understanding factors that influence observation processes is critical for accurate assessment of underlying ecological processes. When indirect methods of detection, such as environmental DNA, are used to determine species presence, additional levels of uncertainty from observation processes need to be accounted for. We conducted a field trial to evaluate observation processes of a terrestrial invasive species (wild pigs- Sus scrofa) from DNA in water bodies. We used a multi-scale occupancy analysis to estimate different levels of observation processes (detection, p): the probability DNA is available per sample (θ), the probability of capturing DNA per extraction (γ), and the probability of amplification per qPCR run (δ). We selected four sites for each

SUBMITTER: Davis AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6262734 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature