I'd like to measure inbreeding in a puma population over the course of seven years. The number of individuals representing each year is highly variable (~30 to ~150). Should I compare a subset from each year to keep the sample size consistent?
Population size significantly affect the estimation of coefficient of inbreeding, so if the aim of the study is detect the change in the coefficient of inbreeding from generation to generation , we must maintain the effect size of the population .
Another factor affect the estimation , the male : female ratio and the control of contribution of the progeny of each parent in the next generation.
Good Luck
Are you sampling from live animals? Do you use any identification tags? Are some animals sampled repeatedly? What is the estimated population and how many are you sampling? Give us a bit more information about sampling strategy.
Thanks for the responses. The samples are from carcasses, so no repeat samples. I'm not sure about the identification tags (I didn't actually do the sampling myself), but I guess that doesn't matter since there are no repeats. I'm looking at temporal changes in the statewide population, which is estimated to be about 1,500 animals. It was suggested that the Wahlund effect could be biasing the statewide inbreeding estimates, so I might instead look at inbreeding and connectivity between regions.
Are you using SNPs or DNA sequences for this effort? Do know how well these sequences have been conserved or how much variation you find in them? Have you estimated the number of observations you would need to detect an increase in inbreeding each year or over the 7 years? Do you think there are geographic subpopulations? If so, you may need to have some way of standardizing number of observations per subpopulation. Sounds like an interesting and challenging project.
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