Description
Sum elapsed intervals, support and their difference into totalDuration, supportedDuration and missingDuration.
Ecological sampling summaries distinguish effort, weighted support, taxon counts and relative composition. A denominator-specific fraction or single-species contribution need not describe abundance, completeness or a whole-community index.
Sum elapsed intervals, support and their difference into totalDuration, supportedDuration and missingDuration.
When to use this tool
Use Ecological Time Support Gap when checking a supplied ecological effort, support or count convention.
How to use the tool and how it works
- Enter startTimes, endTimes, supportedDurations. Keep parallel arrays aligned. Use the units and conventions below.
- Run the tool. Correct any format, range, or cross-field input error before interpreting the output.
- Read totalDuration, supportedDuration, missingDuration. Use the output convention below.
Require equally long startTimes, endTimes and supportedDurations, with end >= start and each support duration in [0,end-start]. Sum elapsed intervals, support and their difference into totalDuration, supportedDuration and missingDuration.1
| Input field | Meaning and units | Accepted input |
|---|---|---|
| startTimes | Start Times | Required. Array of finite number; maximum items 256. |
| endTimes | End Times | Required. Array of finite number; maximum items 256. |
| supportedDurations | Supported Durations | Required. Array of finite number; maximum items 256. |
| Output field | Interpretation | Returned shape |
|---|---|---|
| totalDuration | Total Duration | Required. Finite number. |
| supportedDuration | Supported Duration | Required. Finite number. |
| missingDuration | Missing Duration | Required. Finite number. |
{
"input": {
"startTimes": [
0,
10
],
"endTimes": [
5,
20
],
"supportedDurations": [
3,
8
]
},
"output": {
"totalDuration": 15,
"supportedDuration": 11,
"missingDuration": 4
}
}Limitations and assumptions
- Intervals share a time unit and are not merged, so overlapping records count repeatedly. No temporal completeness standard or missing-data mechanism is established.
- Inputs must satisfy both the field types and the cross-field conditions above. Invalid input causes an error; a successful false flag or documented placeholder is a different result.
- Numeric calculations use binary floating point unless exact decimal-integer arithmetic is explicitly stated. No hidden measurement tolerance or decimal rounding is added; nonfinite or out-of-contract results are rejected. Numeric signed-zero results are exported as zero.
Alternative or Complementary methods
Use an appropriate sampling, detection and community-analysis method for inference beyond these local summaries.
References
Similar or alternative tools
- Ecological Plot Effective Area
effectiveArea = grossArea-sum(excludedAreas)+overlapCorrection.
- Community Total Support Count
supportedCount counts both true; unsupportedCount counts included true and supported false.