Evaluating, Implementing, and Applying Methods for Analysing Animal Biotelemetry Data

by Johannes Michael Signer
Cumulative thesis
Date of Examination:2016-01-29
Date of issue:2016-04-19
Advisor:Prof. Dr. Niko Balkenhol
Referee:Prof. Dr. Niko Balkenhol
Referee:Prof. Dr. Kerstin Wiegand
Persistent Address: http://dx.doi.org/10.53846/goediss-5616

 

 

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Abstract

English

Movement ecology is an emerging discipline within ecology. Researchers addressing ba- sic and applied questions within the movement ecology framework often rely on animal biotelemetry data. Biotelemetry sensors can collect different types of data (from track- ing an animal’s position to measuring its heart rate). Rapid technological advances in satellite based navigation and tracking devices enable researchers to track animals with smaller devices, leading to steadily increasing sampling rates. To characterize space requirements of tracked animals, the concept of a home range is often used. This thesis starts with a general introduction (chapter 1), that connects the following chapters to the wider conceptual and analytical picture. The main parts of this thesis focus on the analysis of animal tracking data using home range analyses (chapters 2 through 5) and how to statistically test for the influence of (environmental) covariates on animal movement (chapter 6). Starting at the level of data management, chapter 2 highlights the need for a data model when working with tracking data. Next, a new package for program R is introduced that implements the previously discussed data model and provides functionality for the analysis of animal tracking data (chapter 3). Within the rhr (reproducible home ranges) package, the most commonly used estimators for home-range analyses are implemented. Further, functionalities for the automatic reporting of results and a graphical user interface are provided. After these technical aspects of tracking data, different methods for the estimation of home-range core areas (chapter 4) and home ranges as such (chapter 5) are discussed. Moving beyond home ranges, chapter 6 introduces a method to test which tests whether an animal’s movement track is influenced by environmental covariates. Finally, this thesis concludes that: (i) amounts of data (tracking data and auxiliary environmental data) will continue to increase in the future; (ii) tools to handle, manage, and analyze them are of great importance (chapter 2 and 3); (iii) researchers should not get lost in methods and lose sight of the wider biological picture, rather, they should use established as well as new methods to answer interesting biological questions (chapter 4 through 6).
Keywords: home range; movement ecology; tracking data; biotelemetry; R
 
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