Abstract
Distance sampling, primarily line transect and point transect sampling,
has had a relatively short history. The earliest attempts to use distances
to detected animals to estimate abundance date back to the 1930s, and
the first line transect estimator with a rigorous mathematical basis was
due to Hayne (1949). Nearly 20 years later, Gates et al. (1968) and
Eberhardt (1968) made important contributions to the development of
line transect sampling methodology. Neither the radial distance model of
Hayne (1949) nor the negative exponential model of Gates et al. (1968) is
based on plausible assumptions about the detection process. Eberhardt’s
(1968) work was more conceptual, and attempted to provide a class of
models that were robust to differing detection processes. None of these
early methods are now recommended. Three papers in the early 1970s
prompted Burnham and Anderson (1976) to develop the general theory
needed for reliable estimation. The first of these papers was Anderson
and Pospahala (1970), who used polynomials to fit the distance data, but
who did not provide underlying theory. The field experiments of Robinette
et al. (1974) were important in providing data sets with known abundance,
on which estimation methods could be tested. The third paper was
by Sen et al. (1974), which gave an erroneous formulation. Burnham and
Anderson (1976) corrected this formulation, and provided a general framework
for both parametric and nonparametric methods, applied to data
that were either grouped or ungrouped, and truncated or untruncated. The
first comprehensive treatment of the topic was by Burnham et al. (1980).
Point transect sampling (or variable circular plots) was conceptualized in
the early 1970s for songbird surveys, although the initial work was not
published until 1980 (Reynolds et al. 1980), by which time several papers
using the technique had already been published. The method is still largely
restricted to avian studies (Rosenstock et al. 2002), although other applications
are now starting to appear in the literature. Reviews of these historical
developments are given by Buckland et al. (2000, 2001).
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