Curriculum Vitae: Rachel Fewster
Education
1995-1998 : University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK.
PhD Statistics (1999).
1992-1995 : University of Cambridge, UK.
MA Mathematics (1995).
Professional Activities
Coordinator of CatchIT!
Data management and analysis for citizen science monitoring
schemes.
Associate Editor, Biometrics, 2006 - present.
Marsden PI, $712K, 2024-2027. Fast statistical methods for enigmatic sensor data,
with Martin Hazelton,
Jesse Goodman,
Ben Stevenson, and
Andrew Robinson.
Marsden PI, $706K, 2021-2024. Inference for statistical linear inverse problems,
with Martin Hazelton,
Jesse Goodman, and
Andrew Robinson.
Marsden AI, $300K, 2020-2023. Estimating animal population size in an unobservable spatial obstacle course,
with Ben Stevenson.
Marsden PI, $680K, 2018-2021. Cells and whistles: genetic and acoustic methods of wildlife monitoring.
Press release in English and
and Te Reo Māori.
Marsden PI, $450K, 2015-2018. A question of identity: estimating population size with uncertain identification of individuals.
Marsden PI, $100K, 2004-2006. Where did you get that rat? Using population genetics to source invasive rats on NZ islands.
Marsden Update.
MBIE PI, $150K, 2015-2016. Traps, Maps, and Stats: CatchIT-Schools educational programme for primary school children.
NZ National Tertiary Teaching Excellence awards: 2009 (individual); 2003 (joint).
Campbell Award 2018: the senior award of
the NZ Statistical Association. ANZJS article.
Presidential invited speaker,
joint conference of the Western North American Biometrics
Society and Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2021.
Keynote speaker, UK National Centre for Statistical Ecology annual meeting, 2021.
Keynote speaker, SEEM 2019, Wellington, 2019.
Keynote speaker, EURING 2017, Barcelona, Spain,
2017.
Keynote speaker, Australasian Biometrics Conference, Gold Coast, Australia,
2017.
Keynote speaker, EcoStats 15, Sydney, Australia, 2015.
Keynote speaker, 9th International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Flagstaff, Arizona, 2014.
Keynote speaker, 3rd International Statistical Ecology Conference, Oslo, Norway, 2012.
International Programme Committee, International Statistical Ecology Conferences:
Sydney 2020;
St Andrews 2018;
Seattle 2016;
Montpellier 2014.
International Programme Committee,
International Biometric Conferences:
Seoul 2020; Victoria BC 2016; Florianopolis Brazil 2010.
Back to Rachel Fewster's home page
Text Book: Mathematics and Statistics for Science
Sneyd, J., Fewster, R.M., and McGillivray, D. Mathematics and Statistics for Science.
Springer, 2022.
This book supplies the maths and statistics concepts underlying scientific
modelling. We've tried to make it highly accessible for non-specialists: the text is
based on ideas, explanations, and examples, and gentle on mathematical detail. We hope
it will be useful not only for students specialising in other fields, but also for
those specialising in maths and statistics to motivate a more intuitive understanding
of the subject. There are hundreds of applications-based exercises, and a full set of
solutions available for instructors.
The chapters on Probability and Statistics are in Parts 8 to 12, and are suitable
for a complete first course at undergraduate level. The foundational chapters may also
be suitable for senior secondary students. Book website.
University of Auckland students and staff can access the library copy
here.
Publications
- van Dam-Bates, P., Papathomas, M., Stevenson, B.C., Fewster, R.M., Turek, D., Stewart, F.,
and Borchers, D.L. A general framework for spatial capture-recapture with unknown identities.
Biometrics, in press.
Online from OUP.
- Arranz, V., Fewster, R.M., and Lavery, S.D. Concordance and drivers of marine spatial
structure determined using genogeographic clustering. Journal of Biogeography, in
press. Full text from Wiley (open access).
- Hamilton, O.N.P., Fewster, R.M., Low, P., Johnson, F., Lea, C., Stockin, K.A., van der Linde, K., and Constantine, R.
Estimating abundance of a small population of Bryde’s whales: a comparison between aerial surveys and boat-based platforms of opportunity.
Animal Conservation, 27, 426-436, 2024.
Full text
from Wiley (open access).
-
Stanley, M.C., McNaughton, E.J., Fewster, R.M., and Galbraith, J.A.
Cumulative propagule pressure exerted by escaped pet parrots.
Journal of Applied Ecology, 60, 384-392, 2023.
Full text
from Wiley (open access). Feature in The Conversation.
-
Buckland, S.T., Borchers, D.L., Marques, T.A., and Fewster, R.M.
Wildlife population assessment: changing priorities driven by technological advances.
Journal of Statistical Theory and Practice, 17, article 20, 2023.
Full text online (open access).
-
Borchers, D.L., Nightingale, P., Stevenson, B.C., and Fewster, R.M.
A latent capture history model for digital aerial surveys. Biometrics, 78, 274-285, 2022.
Online from Wiley.
-
Stevenson, B.C., Fewster, R.M., and Sharma, K.
Spatial correlation structures for detections of individuals in spatial capture-recapture models.
Biometrics, 78, 963-973, 2022.
Online from Wiley.
-
Spatz, D.R., Holmes, N.D., Will, D., Hein, S., Carter, Z.T., Fewster, R.M., Keitt, B.,
Genovesi, P., Samaniego, A., Croll, D.A., Tershy, B., and Russell, J.C.
The global contribution of invasive vertebrate eradication as a key island restoration tool.
Scientific Reports, 12, 13391, 2022.
Full text from nature.com (open access).
Press release from Island Conservation,
features in The Guardian and
Mongabay,
and TV coverage on The AM Show.
-
Setyawan, E., Stevenson, B.C., Erdmann, M.V., Hasan, A.W., Sianipar, A.B., Mofu, I.,
Putra, M.I.H., Izuan, M., Ambafen, O., Fewster, R.M., Aldridge-Sutton, R., Mambrasar,
R., and Constantine, R. Population estimates of photo-identified individuals using a
modified POPAN model reveal that Raja Ampat’s reef manta rays are thriving. Frontiers
in Marine Science, 9, 1014791, 2022.
Full text online (open access).
News feature.
This paper inspired
Rays of Hope
- a poem by Sam Illingworth.
-
Nuttall, M.N., Griffin, O., Fewster, R.M., McGowan, P.J.K., Abernethy, K., O'Kelly, H.,
Nut, M., Sot, V., & Bunnefeld, N. Long-term monitoring of wildlife populations for
protected area management in Southeast Asia. Conservation Science and Practice, 4,
e614, 2022.
Full text online (open access).
- Arranz, V., Fewster, R.M., and Lavery, S.D. Genogeographic clustering to identify
cross-species concordance of spatial genetic patterns.
Diversity and Distributions, 28,
611-623, 2022.
Full text online (open access).
- Campos, I.B., Fewster, R., Landers, T., Truskinger, A., Towsey, M., Roe, P., Lee, B., and Gaskett, A.
Acoustic region workflow for efficient comparison of soundscapes under different invasive
mammals’ management regimes. Ecological Informatics, 68, 101554, 2022.
Online from Elsevier.
-
Fewster, R.M. Null Hypothesis.
Reference Module in Life Sciences, Elsevier, 2022.
Online from ScienceDirect.
-
Arranz, V., Fewster, R.M., and Lavery, S.D. Geographic concordance of genetic barriers
in New Zealand coastal marine species.
Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 31, 3607-3625, 2021.
Online from Wiley.
- Campos, I.B., Fewster, R., Truskinger, A., Towsey, M., Roe, P., Vasques Filho, D.,
Lee, W., and Gaskett, A. Assessing the potential of acoustic indices for protected area
monitoring in the Serra do Cipó National Park, Brazil.
Ecological Indicators, 120, 106953, 2021.
Online from Elsevier.
- Horsup, A.B., Austin, J.J., Fewster, R.M., Hansen, B.D., Harper, D.E., Molyneux, J.A., White, L.C., and Taylor, A.C.
Demographic trends and reproductive patterns in the northern hairy-nosed wombat Lasiorhinus krefftii at Epping Forest National Park (Scientific), Central Queensland.
Australian Mammalogy, 43, 72-84, 2021. Online from CSIRO.
-
Pichlmuller, F., Murphy, E.C., MacKay, J.W.B., Henderson, J., Fewster, R.M., and Russell, J.C.
Island invasion and reinvasion: informing invasive species management with genetic
measures of connectivity. Journal of Applied Ecology, 57, 2258-2270, 2020.
Online from Wiley and
Full text (preprint).
Feature in British Ecological Society News.
- Carroll, E.L., et al. Genetic diversity and connectivity of southern right whales
(Eubalaena australis) found in the Brazil and Chile-Peru wintering grounds and
the South Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur) feeding ground. Journal of Heredity,
111, 263-276, 2020.
Full text online (open access).
Online issue
and Journal
cover image.
- Zhang, W., Bravington, M.V., and Fewster, R.M.
Fast likelihood-based inference for latent count models using the saddlepoint approximation.
Biometrics, 75, 723-733, 2019.
Online from Wiley.
Full text with supplement (preprint).
- Stevenson, B.C., Borchers, D.L., and Fewster, R.M.
Cluster capture-recapture to account for identification uncertainty on aerial
surveys of animal populations.
Biometrics, 75, 326-336, 2019. Online from Wiley.
Journal cover image.
- Zhang, W., Liu, J., Goodman, J., Weir, B.S., and Fewster, R.M.
Stationary distribution of the linkage disequilibrium coefficient r2.
Theoretical Population Biology, 128, 19-26, 2019.
Full text from Elsevier.
-
Russell, J.C., Robins, J.H., and Fewster, R.M. Phylogeography of invasive rats in New Zealand.
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 7, 48, 2019. Full text online (open access).
Online issue: Trends in Urban Rodent Monitoring.
Article in NZ Herald.
-
Hamilton, O.N.P., Kincaid, S.E., Constantine, R., Kozmian-Ledward, L., Walker, C.G., and Fewster, R.M.
Accounting for uncertainty in duplicate identification and group size judgments in mark-recapture distance sampling.
Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 354-362, 2018. Online from Wiley.
Download code and materials.
- Krull, C.R., McMillan, L.F., Fewster, R.M., van der Ree, R., Pech, R., Dennis, T., and Stanley, M.C.
Testing the feasibility of wireless sensor networks and the use of radio signal strength indicator to
track the movements of wild animals.
Wildlife Research, 45, 659-667, 2018. Online from CSIRO.
-
Bowie, M.H., Madi-Corodji, J., Ford, D., Ross, J.G., McLennan, I., Fewster,
R.M., and Murphy, E.C.
Mouse management on Ōtamahua/Quail Island - lessons learned.
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 45, 267-285, 2018.
Online from
Taylor and Francis.
-
Glen, A.S., Russell, J.C., Veltman, C.J., and Fewster, R.M.
I smell a rat! Estimating effective sweep width for searches using wildlife detector dogs.
Wildlife Research, 45, 500-504, 2018. Online from CSIRO.
- McMillan, L.F., and Fewster, R.M. Visualizations for genetic assignment analyses using the
saddlepoint approximation method. Biometrics, 73, 1029-1041, 2017.
Online from Wiley,
or Preprint (PDF) and
Web Appendices.
GenePlot Online:
a free web interface for creating GenePlots.
-
Fewster, R.M. Some applications of genetics in statistical ecology. Advances in
Statistical Analysis, 101, 349-379, 2017.
Full text online from Springer Nature, or article at
Springer Link,
or PDF Preprint.
-
Cheeseman, J.F., Fewster, R.M., and Walker, M.M. Circadian and circatidal
clocks control the mechanism of semilunar foraging behaviour. Scientific
Reports, 7, 3780, 2017.
Full text from nature.com (open access).
Feature in
NZ Herald.
-
Marques, T.A., Thomas, L., Kery, M., Buckland, S.T., Borchers, D.L., Rexstad, E., Fewster, R.M., MacKenzie, D.I.,
Royle, J.A., Guillera-Arroita, G., Handel, C.M., Pavlacky, D.C., and Camp, R.J.
Model-based approaches to deal with detectability: a comment on Hutto (2016a).
Ecological Applications, 27, 1694-1698, 2017.
Online from ESA.
-
Barton, B., Fewster, R., Kirk, V., Leemans, D., Novak, J., Oates, G., Postlethwaite,
C., Sneddon, J., & Wojnowski, M. Implementing Team-Based Learning in
Undergraduate Mathematics: "How To" Guide #1. Wellington: Ako Aotearoa, 2017.
Online from
Ako Aotearoa, and Full text (PDF).
-
Antunes, A.P., Fewster, R.M., Venticinque, E.M., Peres, C.A., Levi, T., Rohe, F., and
Shepard, G.H. Empty forest or empty rivers? A century of commercial hunting in Amazonia.
Science Advances, 2, e1600936, 2016.
Full text (open access)
and Supplementary Materials
from Science website.
Feature in
The Guardian to commemorate UN World Wildlife Day, 2017.
Other selected press coverage from
The Scientist,
The Conversation,
Mongabay,
Yahoo!,
IFL Science,
Science Daily.
-
Fewster, R.M., Stevenson, B.C., and Borchers, D.L. Trace-contrast models for
capture-recapture without capture histories. Statistical Science, 31, 245-258, 2016.
Full text (PDF),
or
Online from Project Euclid.
Journal website.
-
Borchers, D.L., and Fewster, R.M. Spatial capture-recapture models.
Statistical Science, 31, 219-232, 2016.
Full text (PDF), or
Online from Project Euclid.
Journal website.
-
Pfannkuch, M., Budgett, S, Fewster, R., Fitch, M., Pattenwise, S., Wild, C., and Ziedins, I.
Probability modeling and thinking: what can we learn from practice? Statistics Education Research Journal,
15(2), 11-37, 2016.
Full text (PDF);
with
Discussion
by B. Chance & S. Roy; D. Shaw; L. Kaiserlian; and Pfannkuch et al.
Journal website.
-
Carroll, E.L., Fewster, R.M., Childerhouse, S.J., Patenaude, N.J., Boren, L., and
Baker, C.S. First direct evidence for natal wintering ground fidelity and estimate of juvenile
survival in the New Zealand Southern right whale Eubalaena australis.
PLoS ONE, 11, e0146590, 2016.
Full
text (open access).
-
Robins, J.H., Miller, S.D., Russell, J.C., Harper, G.A., and Fewster, R.M.
Where did the rats of Big South Cape Island come from?
New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 40, 229-234, 2016.
Full text (open access);
blog item about the devastation of Big South Cape island by ship rats in 1964,
and
news item.
- Carroll, E.L., Brooks, L., Baker, C.S., Burns, D., Garrigue, C., Hauser, N.,
Jackson, J.A., Poole, M.M., and Fewster, R.M. Assessing the design and power of
capture-recapture studies to estimate demographic parameters for the Endangered Oceania
humpback whale population. Endangered Species Research, 28, 147-162, 2015.
Full text (open access).
-
Vale, R.T.R., Fewster, R.M., Carroll, E.L., and Patenaude, N.J.
Maximum likelihood inference for model Mt,α
for capture-recapture data with misidentification.
Biometrics, 70, 962–971, 2014.
Online from Wiley,
or PDF Preprint and
Web Appendix.
- Fewster, R.M. Teaching statistics to real people: adventures in social stochastics. Plenary paper 3, in K.
Makar, B. de Sousa, and R. Gould (Eds.), Sustainability in statistics education. Proceedings of the Ninth
International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS9, July, 2014), Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Voorburg, The
Netherlands: International Statistical Institute, 2014.
Full text and
Presentation.
- Gimenez, O., et al. Statistical ecology comes of age. Biology Letters, 10, 20140698, 2014.
Full text.
- Fewster, R.M., and Jupp, P.E. Information on parameters of interest decreases under transformations. Journal of Multivariate
Analysis, 120, 34-39, 2013. PDF (preprint), or Online from Elsevier.
- Veale, A.J., Edge, K-A., McMurtrie, P., Fewster, R.M., Clout, M.N., and Gleeson, D.M.
Using genetic techniques to quantify reinvasion, survival and in-situ breeding
rates during control operations. Molecular Ecology,
22, 5071-5083, 2013.
Online from Wiley.
- Carroll, E.L., Childerhouse, S.J., Fewster, R.M., Patenaude, N.J., Steel, D., Dunshea, G.,
Boren, L., and Baker, C.S. Accounting for female reproductive cycles in a superpopulation
capture-recapture framework: application to southern right whales (Eubalaena australis).
Ecological Applications, 23, 1677-1690, 2013.
Online from ESA;
Appendix and Supplements;
and Journal cover image.
- Efford, M.G., and Fewster, R.M. Estimating population size by spatially
explicit capture–recapture. Oikos, 122, 918-928, 2013.
Online from Wiley.
- Fewster, R.M. Null Hypothesis. In Maloy, S. and Hughes, K. (eds). Brenner's
Encyclopedia of Genetics (Second Edition). Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 144-145, 2013.
Online from
ScienceDirect.
- Fewster, R.M. Variance estimation for systematic designs in spatial surveys.
Biometrics, 67, 1518-1531, 2011. Online from
Wiley, or email me for PDF.
-
Carroll, E.L., Patenaude, N.J., Childerhouse, S.J., Kraus,
S. D., Fewster, R.M., and Baker, C.S. Abundance of the New Zealand subantarctic southern right whale
population estimated from photo-identification and genotype
mark-recapture. Marine Biology, 158, 2565-2575, 2011.
Online from SpringerLink.
- Fewster, R.M., Miller, S.D., and Ritchie, J.
DNA profiling - a management tool for rat eradication.
In: Veitch, C. R.; Clout, M. N. and Towns, D. R. (eds)
Island invasives: Eradication and management. IUCN,
Gland, Switzerland, p. 430-435, 2011.
Full text (PDF).
Whole volume (open access).
-
Miller, S.D., Russell, J.C., MacInnes, H.E., Abdelkrim, J., and Fewster, R.M.
Multiple paternity in wild populations of invasive Rattus species.
New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 34, 360-363, 2010.
Full text
(PDF) from NZ J Ecol website.
- Russell, J.C., Miller, S.D., Harper, G.A., MacInnes, H.E., Wylie, M.J., and
Fewster, R.M. Survivors or reinvaders? Using genetic assignment to identify
invasive pests following eradication. Biological
Invasions, 12, 1747-1757, 2010. Full text (open access).
-
Fewster, R.M., and Jupp, P.E. Inference on population size in binomial detectability models.
Biometrika, 96, 805-820, 2009.
Abstract.
Free access PDF from Oxford Journals.
-
Fewster, R.M., Buckland, S.T., Burnham, K.P., Borchers, D.L., Jupp, P.E., Laake,
J.L., and Thomas, L. Estimating the encounter rate variance in distance
sampling. Biometrics, 65, 225-236, 2009.
Online from Wiley with Web Supplement linked
here (direct access here).
- Fewster, R.M. A simple explanation of Benford's Law.
The American Statistician, 63, 26-32, 2009. Full text (PDF).
The American Statistician Website
- Russell, J.C., and Fewster, R.M. Evaluation of the linkage disequilibrium method
for estimating effective population size.
In: Thomson, D. L., Cooch, E. G., Conroy, M. J. (eds) Modeling Demographic
Processes in Marked Populations.
Environmental and Ecological
Statistics Series, Vol 3, Springer, Berlin, pp.
291-320, 2009.
Online volume.
Full text with corrections to misprints on page 311
here.
- Miller, S.D., MacInnes, H.E., and Fewster, R.M. Detecting invisible migrants: an
application of genetic methods to estimate migration rates.
In: Thomson, D. L., Cooch, E. G., Conroy, M. J. (eds) Modeling Demographic
Processes in Marked Populations.
Environmental and Ecological
Statistics Series, Vol 3, Springer, Berlin, pp.
417-437, 2009.
Online volume.
- Russell, J.C., Abdelkrim, J., and Fewster, R.M.
Early colonisation population structure of a Norway rat island invasion.
Biological Invasions, 11, 1557-1567, 2009.
- Fewster, R.M., and Patenaude, N.J. Cubic splines for estimating the
distribution
of residence time using individual resightings data.
In: Thomson, D. L., Cooch, E. G., Conroy, M. J. (eds) Modeling Demographic
Processes in Marked Populations.
Environmental and Ecological
Statistics Series, Vol 3, Springer, Berlin, pp. 393-415, 2009.
Online volume.
- Fewster, R.M., and Pople, A.R. A comparison of mark-recapture distance sampling
methods applied to aerial surveys of Eastern grey kangaroos. Wildlife
Research, 35, 320-330, 2008.
Online issue.
- Fewster, R.M., Southwell, C., Borchers, D.L., Buckland, S.T., and Pople, A.R.
The influence of animal mobility on the assumption of uniform distances in aerial
line transect surveys. Wildlife Research, 35, 275-288, 2008.
Online issue.
- Buckland, S.T., Magurran, A.E., Green, R.E., and Fewster, R.M. (2005). Monitoring
change in biodiversity through composite indices. Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society of London, Series B, 360, 243-254.
- Fewster, R.M., Laake, J.L., and Buckland, S.T. (2005). Line transect sampling in
small and large regions. Biometrics, 61, 856-859.
-
Fewster, R.M. and Buckland, S.T. (2004). Assessment of distance sampling estimators.
In Buckland, S.T., Anderson, D.R., Burnham, K.P., Laake, J.L., Borchers,
D.L., and Thomas, L. (eds). Advanced Distance Sampling. Oxford, Oxford
University Press, p. 281-306.
Book
website.
-
Fewster, R.M. A spatio-temporal stochastic process model for
species spread. Biometrics 59, 640-649 (2003). Abstract.
- Fewster, R.M. and Mendes, E. Portfolio management method for deadline planning.
Proceedings of the Ninth IEEE Symposium on Software Metrics,
IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, California
(2003). Abstract.
- Fewster, R.M. and Buckland, S.T. Similarity indices for spatial ecological
data. Biometrics 57, 495-501 (2001). Summary.
- Fewster, R.M. and Mendes, E. Measurement, prediction and risk
analysis for web applications.
Proceedings of the Seventh IEEE Symposium on Software Metrics,
IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, California
(2001). Abstract.
- Fewster, R.M. and Mendes, E. Empirical evaluation and prediction of web
applications' development effort. Proceedings of EASE'00 - Fourth International
Conference on Empirical Assessment and Evaluation in Software Engineering,
Keele
University, Staffordshire, UK; 2000. Abstract.
- Fewster, R.M., Buckland, S.T., Siriwardena, G.M., Baillie, S.R.
and Wilson, J.D. Analysis of population trends for farmland birds using
generalized additive models. Ecology 81, 1970-1984 (2000).
Full text (PDF) : Copyright by the Ecological Society of America.
R code :
SPLUS code.
- Borchers, D.L., Zucchini, W. and Fewster, R.M. Mark-recapture
models for line transect surveys. Biometrics 54, 1207-1220 (1998).
Summary
- Siriwardena, G.M., Baillie, S.R., Buckland, S.T., Fewster, R.M.,
Marchant, J.H. and Wilson, J.D. Trends in the abundance of farmland
birds: a quantitative comparison of smoothed Common Bird Census indices.
Journal of Applied Ecology 35, 24-43 (1998). Summary