Workshop "Bayesian population analysis using WinBUGS"

Intermediate‐level workshop "Bayesian population analysis using WinBUGS"

Instructors: Marc Kéry and Michael Schaub, Swiss Ornithological Institute Date: 24–28 September 2012
Venue: Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC‐UIB),
Esporles (Mallorca), Spain Computers: People must bring their own laptops
Costs: 500 Euro

This course introduces some key models used in the analysis of distribution, abundance and survival, as well as their spatial and temporal patterns, in a Bayesian analysis framework. It closely follows our book “Bayesian population analysis using WinBUGS” that was recently published by Academic Press. We use programs R and WinBUGS to fit and understand some of the most widely used models for the analysis of animal and plant populations. These include:

• Poisson generalized linear mixed model (e.g., Link and Sauer 2002)
• State‐space models (e.g., Dennis et al. 2006)
• Site‐occupancy models (MacKenzie et al. 2002, 2003) for the analysis of species distributions
• Binomial mixture models (Royle 2004) for the analysis of distribution and abundance with full accounting for observation error
• Closed‐population models for population size
• Cormack‐Jolly‐Seber models for estimating survival probabilities
• Jolly‐Seber models for estimating survival, recruitment and adundance
• Multistate capture‐recapture models for estimating survival and transition rates
• Integrated population models (Besbeas et al. 2002; Schaub et al. 2007).

This is an intermediate‐level workshop with about 3/4 of the time spent on lecturing and 1/4 on solving exercises. No previous experience with program WinBUGS, or Bayesian statistics, is assumed. However, a good working knowledge of modern regression methods (ANOVA, ANCOVA, generalised linear models) and preferentially also of program R (or another programming language) is required.

If you are interested in attending please submit your application until 25 May 2012 to michael.schaub@vogelwarte.ch (CC to marc.kery@vogelwarte.ch) in the form of an email indicating your position, research interests and experience or knowledge of quantitative methods, R programming and Bayesian analysis. Workshop invitations will be sent out in early June 2012.