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Quantifying Animal Trajectories Using Spatial Aggregation and Sequence Analysis: A Case Study of Differentiating Trajectories of Multiple Species
Author(s) -
Gao Peng,
Kupfer John A.,
Zhu Xi,
Guo Diansheng
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geographical analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1538-4632
pISSN - 0016-7363
DOI - 10.1111/gean.12098
Subject(s) - odocoileus , telemetry , range (aeronautics) , sequence (biology) , spatial ecology , movement (music) , home range , computer science , spatial analysis , cartography , ecology , geography , remote sensing , habitat , biology , telecommunications , philosophy , materials science , genetics , composite material , aesthetics
The increasing availability of telemetry data with high spatial and temporal resolution promises to greatly advance scientific understandings of the movement patterns of individual organisms across space and time. The amount of data provided by such methods, however, can be challenging to analyze and interpret. In this study, we present a new approach for analyzing animal movements that aggregates telemetry locations into spatial clusters and extracts the information from sequences formed by individuals passing through these spatial clusters. We applied this integrated approach of spatial aggregation and sequence analysis to quantify and compare trajectories of cattle (Bos taurus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and elk (Cervus elaphus) tracked by automated telemetry at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in northeastern Oregon, USA. Our approach effectively differentiated movement patterns of the three species. It provides a useful mean of quantifying movement patterns of species in a landscape.