A field experiment characterizing variable detection rates during plant surveys

CE Hauser; KM Giljohann; MA McCarthy; GE Garrard; AP Robinson; NSG Williams; JL Moore

Journal article

A field experiment characterizing variable detection rates during plant surveys

CE Hauser, KM Giljohann, MA McCarthy, GE Garrard, AP Robinson, NSG Williams, JL Moore

Conservation Biology | Published : 2022

DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13888

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Abstract

Surveys aimed at finding threatened and invasive species can be challenging due to individual rarity and low and variable individual detection rates. Detection rate in plant surveys typically varies due to differences among observers, among the individual plants being surveyed (targets), and across background environments. Interactions among these 3 components may occur but are rarely estimated due to limited replication and control during data collection. We conducted an experiment to investigate sources of variation in detection of 2 Pilosella species that are invasive and sparsely distributed in the Alpine National Park, Australia. These species are superficially similar in appearance to ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Michael McCarthy Author

Georgia Garrard Author

Andrew Robinson Author

Nick Williams Author

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Funding Acknowledgements

We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of the lands on which this research was conducted and acknowledge their connection to Country. The field study was funded by an ARC Linkage grant awarded to Cousens, Williams, and Duncan (LP100100441), with additional support from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries, Parks Victoria, and the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage. All authors designed the study, and data were collected by C.E.H., K.M.G., G.E.G., N.S.G.W., and J.L.M. and research assistants S. Jellinek, E. Ireland, T. Rout, E. Soh, F. Alexander, and C. Brownridge. We thank E. Wood of Natural History Productions for the excellent flower mimics and the 29 study participants. Data analysis was funded by an ARC Discovery grant awarded to Burgman, Moore, Liebhold, and Robinson (DP160100745). C.E.H. analyzed the data with advice from M.A.M., G.E.G., A.P.R., and J.L.M. Manuscript writing was funded by the Arthur Rylah Institute. C.E.H. wrote the manuscript with editorial input from all authors. We are particularly grateful to R. Cousens, D. Kendal, K. Herbert, I. Curran, C. Pascoe, J. Caldwell, G. Wright, Falls Creek Resort Management, and the Hawkweed Eradication Program Project Control Group for their support and advice. We thank J. Dodd, J. Lahoz-Monfort, and A. Sparrow for useful discussions during the project and J. Vanhatalo and an anonymous reviewer for comments on the submitted manuscript.