How the movement characteristics of large marine predators influence estimates of their abundance

Authored by Fabio Boschetti, Mathew A Vanderklift

Date Published: 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.06.035

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Flow charts Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

Understanding animal movement provides information that helps design effective conservation initiatives. We intuitively understand that the way animals move at large scales determines the extent of their home range and their migratory patterns - and we know that these features are relevant to decisions about the location, size and distribution of protected areas. It is less intuitively obvious that knowledge of movement characteristics at finer scales can also have conservation implications. By modelling the small to intermediate scale movement (1-10(3) m) of a large marine predator in a shallow coastal environment, we show how different assumptions about movement patterns influence estimates of species abundance derived from field observations. Foraging behaviour, statistical properties of the swimming path and average speed exert the greatest impact, suggesting that these should be the focus of further experimental work. Better data would inform our understanding and considerably reduce the uncertainty in abundance estimation, improving conservation-related decision making. Crown Copyright (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Tags

behavior Animal movement Levy flight Flight search patterns Power-law distributions Correlated random-walks Heterogeneous landscapes Wandering albatrosses Ecological models Bayesian-approach