Statistical ecology research

Research interests in this area range from understanding how communities of species behave and interact over time and space, to estimating abundance, and the management and conservation of species.

Estimating animal abundance

Calculating animal abundance is crucial to conservation decision making. Wildlife surveys typically detect a fraction of the individuals in a population, so estimating population size requires determining the number of animals missed. We create new methods to estimate abundance, with a focus on capture-recapture and spatial capture-recapture models.

Population dynamics

We develop models to explain and understand changes in population structure over time. We have particular expertise in fisheries stock assessment modelling, which estimates and forecasts a stock’s age and size structure to determine sustainable yields and inform stock management.

Spatiotemporal models

Our research in this area involves finding new ways to model ecological processes that change over space and time, for example, animal density, distribution, movement, and space usage. Inference about these processes can provide an understanding of how animal populations change due to effects of stressors or other stimuli. 

Multispecies community models

Animal species do not live in isolation but form an ecosystem of interacting organisms. We develop novel methods for multivariate data to understand the interactions between coexisting species within a community.