ASA Alaska Chapter Annual Workshop and Meeting 2024

Workshop: Multi-species occupancy modeling

Date and time: Thursday - Friday, June 20 - June 21, 2024. 9 am – 5 pm each day.

Location: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Akasofu Building, Room 401.

2160 North Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99709

Instructors: Christopher Rota and Kenneth Kellner

Description: Species occurrence in space is influenced by environmental conditions and the presence and absence of other potentially interacting species. Recent advancements in multi-species occupancy modeling techniques have allowed scientists to simultaneously evaluate how both environmental factors and interspecific interactions influence the probability a suite of species will occur at a location in space. This workshop will introduce users to multi-species occupancy models. We will first discuss basic sample design issues and identify how to properly format data for analyses. We will then proceed by fitting simple multi-species models, and continue to add complexity throughout. As we build complexity, we will also highlight scenarios that may lead to problems obtaining reliable parameter estimates. We will further demonstrate how to use penalized likelihood and Bayesian techniques to overcome such problems. We finish the workshop by modeling temporal interactions between species with point process models. The presentation will focus on biological interpretation of model output and we will demonstrate how to produce figures illustrating marginal and conditional probabilities of occurrence. We will demonstrate how to fit the model using the ‘unmarked’ package in program R, in addition to NIMBLE, and Stan. We will share code and data used to conduct example analyses with workshop participants.

About the instructors

Chris Rota is an associate professor of quantitative ecology at West Virginia University. He considers himself an applied quantitative ecologist. His work spans development of novel analytical techniques and applications of those techniques to address management and conservation questions. Chris received his BS from the University of Montana, his MS from the University of Florida, and both a PhD in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and an MA in Statistics from the University of Missouri. In his spare time, Chris spends a lot of time archery hunting, distance running, and poking around in the woods with his family.

Ken Kellner (https://kenkellner.com) is an assistant research professor at Michigan State University. Prior to his current position, he completed a Ph.D. in forest ecology at Purdue University and worked at West Virginia University and SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry. Ken's research has covered a wide range of topics including forest management, plant demography, avian and mammal conservation, and reproducible research. Ken has also developed or contributed to several software packages that are widely used by ecologists and featured in several books, including the R packages jagsUI, unmarked, and ubms.

Accommodations

Lodging:

Best Western Plus Chena River Lodge. A block of rooms is available at a rate of $249/night (plus tax). Contact the hotel directly at 907-328-3500 and say you are with the “ASA AK Chapter Statistical Meeting” to get the block rate or use the following link: https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotel-rooms.02017.html?groupId=U50WM9F2. Rooms must be reserved before June 7th to get the block rate.

Food:

A catered lunch will be provided to in-person participants as well as coffee and water throughout the day. We will try to accommodate all dietary restrictions if given enough notice. Please contact Lainey Gallenberg (elaine.gallenberg@alaska.gov) with requests.

Registration Rates

Meeting participants must register. The 2-day registration fee will cover the short course and also includes 2 catered lunches, coffee, and refreshments. In-person participants will be limited to 24 people. Online participants will not be capped.

General Registration: The general registration rate for the 2-day meeting is $350. The registration rate applies through June 13 (Thursday).

Late Registration: After June 13, a late registration rate of $400 will apply for the meeting.

Online Only Option: an online Zoom conference option for those that don't want or can't attend in-person for $150. Lunch is not provided.

Students: contact the organizer below to request a student fee waiver and travel funds that are available on a case-by-case basis, subject to need and available funds.

Meeting Contact

Lainey Gallenberg

715-222-9789

elaine.gallenberg@alaska.gov