GenEst - A Generalized Estimator of Mortality

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An important measure of the impact of renewable energy development on wildlife is direct mortality, but accurately estimating it is difficult when mortality takes place over an extended period of time, and probability of discovery of fatalities varies greatly. Over the past decade several new estimators have been developed, each contributing some improvement over the previous ones but also causing confusion among practitioners regarding which estimator to use when, and how the estimators differ. With support from federal and private agencies, USGS statisticians brought together the developers of these different estimators to collaborate on a single accurate estimator of mortality and its associated uncertainty. Accurate mortality estimates are fundamental to understanding acute and cumulative effects of renewable energy development on wildlife populations. GenEst is an open source R-package, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, with both GUI and command line implementations and includes example datasets.

Simonis, J., Dalthorp, D.H., Huso, M.M., Mintz, J.M., Madsen, L., Rabie, P., Studyvin, J., 2018, GenEst User Guide—Software for a Generalized Estimator of Mortality: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, v. 7, no. C19, p. 72, https://doi.org/10.3133/tm7C19.

Dalthorp, D.H., Simonis, J., Madsen, L., Huso, M.M., Rabie, P., Mintz, J.M., Wolpert, R., Studyvin, J., Korner-Nievergelt, F., 2018, Generalized Mortality Estimator (GenEst) - R code & GUI: U.S. Geological Survey Software Release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9O9BATL

Dalthorp, D.H., Madsen, L., Huso, M.M., Rabie, P., Wolpert, R., Studyvin, J., Simonis, J., Mintz, J.M., 2018, GenEst statistical models—A generalized estimator of mortality: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, v. 7, no. A2, p. 13, https://doi.org/10.3133/tm7A2.