An empirical exploration of data quality in DNA-based population inventories.

Abstract excerpt

I present data from 21 population inventory studies - 20 of them on bears - that relied on the noninvasive collection of hair, and review the methods that were used to prevent genetic errors in these studies. These methods were designed to simultaneously minimize errors (which can bias estimates of abundance) and per-sample analysis effort (which can reduce the precision of estimates by limiting sample size). A...

Topics

• Animals
• Demography
• Genetic Variation
• Hair
• Microsatellite Repeats
• Research Design
• Sample Size
• Specimen Handling
• Ursidae