Integrated animal movement and spatial capture-recapture models: Simulation, implementation, and inference.

Beth Gardner, Brett T McClintock, Sarah J Converse, Nathan J Hostetter
Author Information
  1. Beth Gardner: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. ORCID
  2. Brett T McClintock: Marine Mammal Laboratory, NOAA-NMFS Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington, USA. ORCID
  3. Sarah J Converse: U.S. Geological Survey, Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. ORCID
  4. Nathan J Hostetter: U.S. Geological Survey, North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. ORCID

Abstract

Over the last decade, spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models have become widespread for estimating demographic parameters in ecological studies. However, the underlying assumptions about animal movement and space use are often not realistic. This is a missed opportunity because interesting ecological questions related to animal space use, habitat selection, and behavior cannot be addressed with most SCR models, despite the fact that the data collected in SCR studies - individual animals observed at specific locations and times - can provide a rich source of information about these processes and how they relate to demographic rates. We developed SCR models that integrated more complex movement processes that are typically inferred from telemetry data, including a simple random walk, correlated random walk (i.e., short-term directional persistence), and habitat-driven Langevin diffusion. We demonstrated how to formulate, simulate from, and fit these models with standard SCR data using data-augmented Bayesian analysis methods. We evaluated their performance through a simulation study, in which we varied the detection, movement, and resource selection parameters. We also examined different numbers of sampling occasions and assessed performance gains when including auxiliary location data collected from telemetered individuals. Across all scenarios, the integrated SCR movement models performed well in terms of abundance, detection, and movement parameter estimation. We found little difference in bias for the simple random walk model when reducing the number of sampling occasions from T = 25 to T = 15. We found some bias in movement parameter estimates under several of the correlated random walk scenarios, but incorporating auxiliary location data improved parameter estimates and significantly improved mixing during model fitting. The Langevin movement model was able to recover resource selection parameters from standard SCR data, which is particularly appealing because it explicitly links the individual-level movement process with habitat selection and population density. We focused on closed population models, but the movement models developed here can be extended to open SCR models. The movement process models could also be easily extended to accommodate additional "building blocks" of random walks, such as central tendency (e.g., territoriality) or multiple movement behavior states, thereby providing a flexible and coherent framework for linking animal movement behavior to population dynamics, density, and distribution.

Keywords

References

  1. Ecology. 2022 Oct;103(10):e3473 [PMID: 34270790]
  2. Ecology. 2021 Mar;102(3):e03262 [PMID: 33244753]
  3. Ecology. 2022 Oct;103(10):e3772 [PMID: 35633152]
  4. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 1;117(48):30531-30538 [PMID: 33199605]
  5. Ecology. 2010 Nov;91(11):3376-83 [PMID: 21141198]
  6. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Jul 27;365(1550):2289-301 [PMID: 20566505]
  7. Ecol Evol. 2018 Sep 27;8(20):10336-10344 [PMID: 30397470]
  8. Ecology. 2013 Oct;94(10):2173-9 [PMID: 24358703]
  9. Ecology. 2013 Mar;94(3):553-9 [PMID: 23687880]
  10. Sci Rep. 2018 Feb 1;8(1):2177 [PMID: 29391588]
  11. Ecology. 2022 Oct;103(10):e3771 [PMID: 35638187]
  12. PLoS One. 2020 Jun 8;15(6):e0227468 [PMID: 32511240]
  13. Ecology. 2019 Feb;100(2):e02580 [PMID: 30601582]
  14. PLoS One. 2012;7(4):e34575 [PMID: 22539949]
  15. Trends Ecol Evol. 1999 Jul;14(7):268-272 [PMID: 10370262]
  16. Ecology. 2019 Jun;100(6):e02715 [PMID: 30927548]
  17. Biometrics. 2019 Dec;75(4):1345-1355 [PMID: 31045249]
  18. Science. 2015 Jun 12;348(6240):aaa2478 [PMID: 26068858]
  19. PLoS One. 2017 Oct 3;12(10):e0185588 [PMID: 28973034]
  20. Biometrics. 2020 Jun;76(2):392-402 [PMID: 31517386]
  21. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Jul 27;365(1550):2255-65 [PMID: 20566502]
  22. Mov Ecol. 2014 Feb 07;2(1):4 [PMID: 25520815]
  23. Ecology. 2022 Oct;103(10):e3676 [PMID: 35253209]

MeSH Term

Animals
Bayes Theorem
Computer Simulation
Ecosystem
Movement
Population Density

Word Cloud

Created with Highcharts 10.0.0movementmodelsSCRdatarandomanimalselectionwalkpopulationcapture-recaptureparametersbehaviorLangevinparametermodelspatialdemographicecologicalstudiesspaceusehabitatcollected-canprocessesdevelopedintegratedincludingsimplecorrelatedediffusionstandardperformancedetectionresourcealsosamplingoccasionsauxiliarylocationscenariosabundancefoundbiasT=estimatesimprovedprocessdensityextendedecologylastdecadebecomewidespreadestimatingHoweverunderlyingassumptionsoftenrealisticmissedopportunityinterestingquestionsrelatedaddresseddespitefactindividualanimalsobservedspecificlocationstimesproviderichsourceinformationrelateratescomplextypicallyinferredtelemetryishort-termdirectionalpersistencehabitat-drivendemonstratedformulatesimulatefitusingdata-augmentedBayesiananalysismethodsevaluatedsimulationstudyvariedexamineddifferentnumbersassessedgainstelemeteredindividualsAcrossperformedwelltermsestimationlittledifferencereducingnumber2515severalincorporatingsignificantlymixingfittingablerecoverparticularlyappealingexplicitlylinksindividual-levelfocusedclosedopeneasilyaccommodateadditional"buildingblocks"walkscentraltendencygterritorialitymultiplestatestherebyprovidingflexiblecoherentframeworklinkingdynamicsdistributionIntegratedmodels:SimulationimplementationinferenceNIMBLE

Similar Articles

Cited By (3)