N$_c$-mixture occupancy model

Abstract

A class of occupancy models for detection/non-detection data is proposed to relax the closure assumption of N$-$mixture models. We introduce a community parameter $c$, ranging from $0$ to $1$, which characterizes a certain portion of individuals being fixed across multiple visits. As a result, when $c$ equals $1$, the model reduces to the N$-$mixture model; this reduced model is shown to overestimate abundance when the closure assumption is not fully satisfied. Additionally, by including a zero-inflated component, the proposed model can bridge the standard occupancy model ($c=0$) and the zero-inflated N$-$mixture model ($c=1$). We then study the behavior of the estimators for the two extreme models as $c$ varies from $0$ to $1$. An interesting finding is that the zero-inflated N$-$mixture model can consistently estimate the zero-inflated probability (occupancy) as $c$ approaches $0$, but the bias can be positive, negative, or unbiased when $c>0$ depending on other parameters. We also demonstrate these results through simulation studies and data analysis.