Dear all,
I am starting to work on a multi-state multi-season occupancy model. We are looking at multiple study sites, and data collection at the different sites commenced in different years. My question: do the initial occupancy parameters refer to (a) the first year of the study across all site, sampled or not, and occupancy is predicted for those sites not sampled in the first year; or (b) to the first year each site was sampled (so that could be year 1 for some sites, year 2 for others, and so forth)?
It feels like a very basic question but I haven't been able to find an answer in the existing documentation. Apologies if I overlooked something.
Thank you!
Rahel