2014/04/18 by Cécile Durot, Sylvie Huet, Durot, Cécile +5
Computer Science · Environmental Science · Mathematics · #62G05 #62G09 #62P10 #Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies #Bayesian Methods and Mixture Models #Census and Population Estimation #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Methodology (stat.ME) #msc:62G05 #msc:62G09 #msc:62P10 #stat.ME
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1404.4830
arxiv created 2014/04/18 · openalex publication_date 2014/04/18 · arxiv updated 2014/04/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider the estimation of the total number N of species based on the abundances of species that have been observed. We adopt a non parametric approach where the true abundance distribution p is only supposed to be convex. From this assumption, we propose a definition for convex abundance distributions. We use a least-squares estimate of the truncated version of p under the convexity constraint. We deduce two estimators of the total number of species, the asymptotic distribution of which are derived. We propose three different procedures, including a bootstrap one, to obtain a confidence interval for N. The performances of the estimators are assessed in a simulation study and compared with competitors. The proposed method is illustrated on several examples.