NRES 488 Homework 1.
1.
Use the Excel spreadsheet binomialhw.xls in the HW1 folder within the class public folder. Data in sheet 1 represent 10 different sets of 50 coin toss trials.
Each trial used a coin with the same probability of getting a head and the same number of tosses. Use the methods we learned in lab to estimate the probability of getting heads and the number of tosses in each trial. Repeat the exercise for the data in sheet 2. How do number of tosses affect precision of your estimates of the probability of getting a head?
2.
In a simple capture-recapture study with two capture occasions, 100 individuals are captured and marked on the first occasion. During the second capture occasion 80 individuals were captured, of which 30 were marked. What is your estimate of the population size and the precision of your estimate of the marked proportion?
3.
In lecture, we saw that the Lincoln-Petersen estimator for population size
N

MC m
. Explain why this equation provides an estimate of population size, based on marked/total ratios. Rearrange the equation above to show how population size can be estimated using an estimate of capture probability.