A Test of Positive Association for Detecting Heterogeneity in Capture for Capture-Recapture Data.

ABSTRACT: The Cormack-Jolly-Seber (CJS) model assumes that all marked animals have equal recapture probabilities at each sampling occasion, but heterogeneity in capture often occurs and should be taken into account to avoid biases in parameter estimates. Although diagnostic tests are generally used to detect trap-dependence or transience and assess the overall fit of the model, heterogeneity in capture is not routinely tested for. In order to detect and identify this phenomenon in a CJS framework, we propose a test of positive association between previous and future encounters using Goodman-Kruskal's gamma. This test is based solely on the raw capture histories and makes no assumption on model structure. The development of the test is motivated by a dataset of Sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicen

SUBMITTER: Jeyam A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6954010 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature