Species presence/absence is a fundamental concept used in many areas of ecology (e.g., species distributions, habitat modelling, monitoring, and metapopulation studies), however imperfect detection can lead to false absences. Unaccounted for, false absences can lead to misleading inferences about patterns and dynamics of species occurrence, and the factors that influence them.
In this 4.5 day introductory course we cover methods that have been developed to account for imperfect detection with species detection/nondetection data, and also discus important study design considerations. Classroom exercises are completed using the purpose-built software Program PRESENCE, and also R.
This course is targeted at those that have no, or little, experience with occupancy modelling, but more experienced users may also benefit from attending. Familiarity with regression, logistic regression or generalised linear modelling would be an advantage.