Problems with PVA
Slide 47 of 47
In summary, most estimates of population viability are nearly useless because one or more of the following mistakes or omissions are made in developing a model to estimate persistence.
1. The model ignores spatial variation which will increase population viability. As suggested by Stacey and Taper (1992) immigration can occasionally rescue a population from extinction.
2. The model uses estimates of temporal variation that are at best, poor guesses. This statement assumes that the modeler understood the difference between process variation and sampling variation. Often, sampling variation is assumed to substitute for process variation, and, as a result, the estimates of persistence are useless. Sampling variation has nothing to do with population persistence.
3. The model uses demographic variation as a substitute for temporal variation in the process, and ignores true temporal variation.
4. The model ignores life-long individual heterogeneity that increases
population viability, and assumes that all individuals endure the same identical survival and reproduction parameters. Such a naive assumption results in population viability being underestimated.
5. The model assumes that current conditions are not changing, i.e., the stochastic processes included in the model are assumed constant for the indefinite future. Loss of habitat and other environmental changes that affect these stochastic processes are ignored. Thus, as discussed by Caswell (1989), the model is likely not useful in forecasting (i.e., predicting what will happen), but is useful in projecting (i.e., predicting what would happen if conditions do not change).
