Atlas home || Conferences | Abstracts | about Atlas

International Conference on Statistics, Combinatorics and Related Areas - 7th International Conference of the Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics
December 19-21, 2000
Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay
Mumbai, Maharastra, India

Organizers
Satya N. Mishra (University of South Alabama), Sanjeev V. Sabnis (IIT, Bombay)

View Abstracts
Conference Homepage

Sequential stopping rules for accumulation curves
by
J. Andres Christen
IMATE, Morelia, UNAM and CIMAT, MEXICO
Coauthors: Miguel Nakamura (Centro de Investigacion en Matemticas CIMAT, A. C., Apartado Postal 402, 36000 Guanajuato, Gto., MEXICO)

Identifying and counting the total number of biological species observed, when plotted vs. a measure of the effort used to record them, gives rise to a ßpecies accumulation curve". Interest focousses mainly on estimating the total number of species in the area of study using the aaccumulation curve. In this paper we consider the problem of optimally stoping the sampling process. We use a sequential procedure with a fixed maximum horizon for accumulation. A utility function based on the number of new species to be observed and the effort saved from the maximum horizon is used to reach an algorithm based on backward induction. An example of accumulation of bat species is also presented.

Date received: October 11, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cafr-24.