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Enhancing the use of Argos satellite data for home range and long distance migration studies of marine animals
Citation
Hoenner, X and Whiting, SD and Hindell, MA and McMahon, CR, Enhancing the use of Argos satellite data for home range and long distance migration studies of marine animals, PLOS One, 7, (7) Article e40713. ISSN 1932-6203 (2012) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040713
Abstract
Accurately quantifying animals’ spatial utilisation is critical for conservation, but has long remained an elusive goal due to
technological impediments. The Argos telemetry system has been extensively used to remotely track marine animals,
however location estimates are characterised by substantial spatial error. State-space models (SSM) constitute a robust
statistical approach to refine Argos tracking data by accounting for observation errors and stochasticity in animal
movement. Despite their wide use in ecology, few studies have thoroughly quantified the error associated with SSM
predicted locations and no research has assessed their validity for describing animal movement behaviour. We compared
home ranges and migratory pathways of seven hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) estimated from (a) highly
accurate Fastloc GPS data and (b) locations computed using common Argos data analytical approaches. Argos 68th
percentile error was <1 km for LC 1, 2, and 3 while markedly less accurate (>4 km) for LC ≤0. Argos error structure was
highly longitudinally skewed and was, for all LC, adequately modelled by a Student’s t distribution. Both habitat use and
migration routes were best recreated using SSM locations post-processed by re-adding good Argos positions (LC 1, 2 and 3)
and filtering terrestrial points (mean distance to migratory tracks ± SD = 2.2±2.4 km; mean home range overlap and error
ratio = 92.2% and 285.6 respectively). This parsimonious and objective statistical procedure however still markedly
overestimated true home range sizes, especially for animals exhibiting restricted movements. Post-processing SSM locations
nonetheless constitutes the best analytical technique for remotely sensed Argos tracking data and we therefore
recommend using this approach to rework historical Argos datasets for better estimation of animal spatial utilisation for
research and evidence-based conservation purposes.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | animal migration, animals, Australia, ecosystem, female, geographic information systems, geography, homing behavior, likelihood functions, satellite communications, turtles |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Ecology |
Research Field: | Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
UTAS Author: | Hoenner, X (Mr Xavier Hoenner) |
UTAS Author: | Hindell, MA (Professor Mark Hindell) |
UTAS Author: | McMahon, CR (Dr Clive McMahon) |
ID Code: | 83792 |
Year Published: | 2012 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 46 |
Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
Deposited On: | 2013-03-22 |
Last Modified: | 2017-11-01 |
Downloads: | 288 View Download Statistics |
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