Poultry or Avian Science Commons^™

Bayesian Analysis Of Data On Nest Success For Marsh Birds, Sean Hardy

Honors College

Bayesian methods are an increasingly popular form of statistical analysis which uses informative prior distributions to help calculate posterior distributions of models that represent different hypotheses. Frequentist methods are contrasting methods that are used more commonly and more well known, but have come under recent criticism. I examined data gathered by Ellen Robertson, who used information theoretic methods for a Masters’ Thesis in Ecology and Environmental Science at the University of Maine to analyze the daily survival probabilities of marsh birds with a Bayesian perspective in order to get a sense of the Bayesian analysis. Results were as expected; when …

From Not So Simple A Beginning: The Voyage Of The Beagle To The Voyage Of The Endeavour Retracing The Steps Of Charles Darwin In The Galapagos Islands, Kathleen Carroll

Honors College

This is a natural history exploration of the behavior and distinct features of common vertebrates of the Galápagos Islands. Covering more than 26 species, this journey of observation begins with an in-depth look at Charles Darwin's field notes, and moves through history to examine how the knowledge about these species has changed. It is finalized with my personal experiences after a ten day journey exploring the islands with the crew of the National Geographic vessel, the Endeavour. My understanding of the species is solidified through my notes, sketches, films and photographs.

While journeying through the islands I carried a professional-grade …

An Evaluation Of An Avian Diversity Model, Tansy Lynn Wagner

Honors College

Diversity exists at all temporal and spatial scales but has been studied largely at the community level because of the limited availability of regional or nation-wide data. In the U.S. both the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and the Breeding Bird Census (BBC) provide large-scale observations of avian populations over periods of decades and offer a potential source of information. A large-scale model of avian diversity based on the BBS has been developed by O'Connor et. al.(1996). The BBC serves as a source for independently obtained species richness estimates used to evaluate the ability of the model to generate corresponding predictions. …