My colleagues and I have a paper that has been accepted for publication in the Annals of Applied Statistics. Therein, we develop a data fusion method that uses both aerial survey and passive acoustic data to better estimate the abundance of North Atlantic right whales. While our paper is not yet online, the lead author, Erin Schliep, professor of statistics at North Carolina State University, will present the work during a webinar at 2pm (Eastern Time) on the 25th of October. The webinar is hosted by the North Carolina chapter of the American Statistical Association.
The webinar is free, but registration is required. To register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvcumorT0vE9x1tSVCjOCMh7PwEQh8ZTfb<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvcumorT0vE9x1tSVCjOCMh7PwEQh8ZTfb__;!!HrbR-XT-OQ!WGonFzXbYUNXAtTttGMOUv4X28QW0k6mWuJirG6QK27AaHAQuG9lvp0OQSpdp2fdGAfRLqzTMsFweFcrzQ$> After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Abstract: Marine mammals are increasingly vulnerable to human disturbance and climate change. Their diving behavior leads to limited visual access during data collection, making studying the abundance and distribution of marine mammals challenging. In theory, using data from more than one observation modality should lead to better informed predictions of abundance and distribution. With focus on North Atlantic right whales, we consider the fusion of two data sources: (i) aerial distance sampling which provides the spatial locations of whales detected and (ii) passive acoustic monitoring, returning calls received at hydrophones placed on the ocean floor. Due to limited time on the surface and detection limitations arising from sampling effort, aerial distance sampling only provides a partial realization of locations. With passive acoustic monitoring, we never observe numbers or locations of individuals. To address these challenges, we develop a novel thinned spatial point pattern data fusion. Our approach leads to improved inference regarding abundance and distribution of North Atlantic right whales throughout Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts in the US. Speaker Bio: Erin Schliep is an Associate Professor of Statistics at North Carolina State University. She completed her PhD at Colorado State University, was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University, and spent seven years on the faculty at the University of Missouri before joining NCSU. She has research interests in Bayesian statistics, multivariate statistics, and spatiotemporal statistics. She has experience working on large collaborative research projects at the interface of statistics, environmental science, and ecology and has developed and maintained strong working relationships with researchers across disciplines, universities, and government agencies. Citation: Schliep, E. M., Gelfand, A. E., Clark, C. W., Mayo, C. M., McKenna, B., Parks, S. E., Yack, T. M., and Schick, R. S. (In Press). Assessing Marine Mammal Abundance: A Novel Data Fusion. Annals of Applied Statistics. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.08397 Rob Schick, PhD Senior Scientist Southall Environmental Associates, Inc.
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