0 Jarrad, F Barrett, S Murray, J Stoklosa, R Whittle, P Mengersen, K 2010 Ecological aspects of biosecurity surveillance design for the detection of multiple invasive animal species Biological Invasions Springer Alien-invasive species - Expert elicitation - Island ecosystems - Power to detect - Statistical design <p>Complex <span class="searchword">surveillance</span> problems are common in <span class="searchword">biosecurity</span>, such as prioritizing <span class="searchword">detection</span> among multiple invasive species, specifying risk over a heterogeneous landscape, combining multiple sources <span class="searchword">of</span> <span class="searchword">surveillance</span> data, designing <span class="searchword">for</span> specified power to detect, resource management, and collateral effects on <span class="searchword">the</span> environment. Moreover, when designing <span class="searchword">for</span> multiple target species, inherent biological differences among species result in different <span class="searchword">ecological</span> models underpinning <span class="searchword">the</span> individual surveillance systems for each. Species are likely to have different habitat requirements, different introduction mechanisms and locations, require different methods of <span class="searchword">detection</span>, have different levels of detectability, and vary in rates of movement and spread. Often there is a further challenge of a lack of knowledge, literature, or data, for any number of the above problems. Even so, governments and industry need to proceed with surveillance programs which aim to detect incursions in order to meet environmental, social and political requirements. We present an approach taken to meet these challenges in one comprehensive and statistically powerful surveillance <span class="searchword">design</span> for non-indigenous terrestrial vertebrates on Barrow Island, a high conservation nature reserve off the Western Australian coast. Here, the possibility of incursions is increased due to construction and expanding industry on the island. The design, which includes mammals, amphibians and reptiles, provides a complete surveillance program for most potential terrestrial vertebrate invaders. Individual surveillance systems were developed for various potential invaders, and then integrated into an overall surveillance system which meets the above challenges using a statistical model and expert elicitation. We discuss the ecological basis for the design, the flexibility of the surveillance scheme, how it meets the above challenges, design limitations, and how it can be updated as data are collected as a basis for adaptive management.</p>