When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement
Animal movement is essential to our understanding of population dynamics, animal behavior, and the impacts of global change. Coupled with high-resolution biotelemetry data, exciting new inferences about animal movement have been facilitated by various specifications of contemporary models. These app...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4337762 2023-05-15T18:49:38+02:00 When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement McClintock, Brett T Johnson, Devin S Hooten, Mevin B Ver Hoef, Jay M Morales, Juan M 2014-10-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4337762 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25709830 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-014-0021-6 en eng BioMed Central http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25709830 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-014-0021-6 © McClintock et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. CC0 PDM CC-BY Review Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-014-0021-6 2015-03-01T01:05:37Z Animal movement is essential to our understanding of population dynamics, animal behavior, and the impacts of global change. Coupled with high-resolution biotelemetry data, exciting new inferences about animal movement have been facilitated by various specifications of contemporary models. These approaches differ, but most share common themes. One key distinction is whether the underlying movement process is conceptualized in discrete or continuous time. This is perhaps the greatest source of confusion among practitioners, both in terms of implementation and biological interpretation. In general, animal movement occurs in continuous time but we observe it at fixed discrete-time intervals. Thus, continuous time is conceptually and theoretically appealing, but in practice it is perhaps more intuitive to interpret movement in discrete intervals. With an emphasis on state-space models, we explore the differences and similarities between continuous and discrete versions of mechanistic movement models, establish some common terminology, and indicate under which circumstances one form might be preferred over another. Counter to the overly simplistic view that discrete- and continuous-time conceptualizations are merely different means to the same end, we present novel mathematical results revealing hitherto unappreciated consequences of model formulation on inferences about animal movement. Notably, the speed and direction of movement are intrinsically linked in current continuous-time random walk formulations, and this can have important implications when interpreting animal behavior. We illustrate these concepts in the context of state-space models with multiple movement behavior states using northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) biotelemetry data. Text Callorhinus ursinus Northern fur seal PubMed Central (PMC) Movement Ecology 2 1 |
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Review McClintock, Brett T Johnson, Devin S Hooten, Mevin B Ver Hoef, Jay M Morales, Juan M When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
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Review |
description |
Animal movement is essential to our understanding of population dynamics, animal behavior, and the impacts of global change. Coupled with high-resolution biotelemetry data, exciting new inferences about animal movement have been facilitated by various specifications of contemporary models. These approaches differ, but most share common themes. One key distinction is whether the underlying movement process is conceptualized in discrete or continuous time. This is perhaps the greatest source of confusion among practitioners, both in terms of implementation and biological interpretation. In general, animal movement occurs in continuous time but we observe it at fixed discrete-time intervals. Thus, continuous time is conceptually and theoretically appealing, but in practice it is perhaps more intuitive to interpret movement in discrete intervals. With an emphasis on state-space models, we explore the differences and similarities between continuous and discrete versions of mechanistic movement models, establish some common terminology, and indicate under which circumstances one form might be preferred over another. Counter to the overly simplistic view that discrete- and continuous-time conceptualizations are merely different means to the same end, we present novel mathematical results revealing hitherto unappreciated consequences of model formulation on inferences about animal movement. Notably, the speed and direction of movement are intrinsically linked in current continuous-time random walk formulations, and this can have important implications when interpreting animal behavior. We illustrate these concepts in the context of state-space models with multiple movement behavior states using northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) biotelemetry data. |
format |
Text |
author |
McClintock, Brett T Johnson, Devin S Hooten, Mevin B Ver Hoef, Jay M Morales, Juan M |
author_facet |
McClintock, Brett T Johnson, Devin S Hooten, Mevin B Ver Hoef, Jay M Morales, Juan M |
author_sort |
McClintock, Brett T |
title |
When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
title_short |
When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
title_full |
When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
title_fullStr |
When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
title_full_unstemmed |
When to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
title_sort |
when to be discrete: the importance of time formulation in understanding animal movement |
publisher |
BioMed Central |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4337762 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25709830 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-014-0021-6 |
genre |
Callorhinus ursinus Northern fur seal |
genre_facet |
Callorhinus ursinus Northern fur seal |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25709830 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-014-0021-6 |
op_rights |
© McClintock et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC0 PDM CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-014-0021-6 |
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Movement Ecology |
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2 |
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1 |
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1766243234514731008 |