Seasonal effects on insect succession in pig carrion in Northern California

In forensic entomology, insect succession is one process used to estimate the time elapsed since death (the minimum postmortem interval or mPMI). A better understanding of the sources of successional variation may allow for a more accurate mPMI estimation. Many of these variables are influenced by seasonal effects. Therefore, we sought to determine which season has the largest variation in the rate of insect succession and periods of infestation from year to year. We set out five pigs at the beginning of every season for two consecutive years, and sampled every pig twice a week for a year. All of the insects sampled were identified to species and entered into a presence-absence matrix. We then compared each season between the two years using the Jaccard similarity coefficient. By determining which season has the highest successional variation, we aimed to identify which seasonal effects are the greatest contributors to species and colonization rate variance.