Standardising terminology and notation for the analysis of demographic processes in marked populations

Abstract

The development of statistical methods for the analysis of demographic processes in marked animal populations has brought with it the challenges of communication between the disciplines of statistics, ecology, evolutionary biology and computer science. In order to aid communication and comprehension, we sought to root out a number of cases of ambiguity, redundancy and inaccuracy in notation and terminology that have developed in the literature. We invited all working in this field to submit topics for resolution and to express their own views. In the ensuing discussion forum it was then possible to establish a series of general principles which were, almost without exception, unanimously accepted. Here we set out the background to the areas of confusion, how these were debated and the conclusions which were reached in each case. We hope that the resulting guidelines will be widely adopted as standard terminology in publications and in software for the analysis of demographic processes in marked animal populations