Ecological inference using data from accelerometers needs careful protocols
1. Accelerometers in animal-attached tags are powerful tools in behavioural ecol-ogy, they can be used to determine behaviour and provide proxies for movement- based energy expenditure. Researchers are collecting and archiving data across systems, seasons and device types. However, using data reposi...
Published in: | Methods in Ecology and Evolution |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2022
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-2-a8xav7qycqup8 https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13804 |
Summary: | 1. Accelerometers in animal-attached tags are powerful tools in behavioural ecol-ogy, they can be used to determine behaviour and provide proxies for movement- based energy expenditure. Researchers are collecting and archiving data across systems, seasons and device types. However, using data repositories to draw ecological inference requires a good understanding of the error introduced ac-cording to sensor type and position on the study animal and protocols for error assessment and minimisation. 2. Using laboratory trials, we examine the absolute accuracy of tri-axial accelerom-eters and determine how inaccuracies impact measurements of dynamic body acceleration (DBA), a proxy for energy expenditure, in human participants. We then examine how tag type and placement affect the acceleration signal in birds, using pigeons Columba livia flying in a wind tunnel, with tags mounted simul-taneously in two positions, and back- and tail- mounted tags deployed on wild kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla. Finally, we present a case study where two genera-tions of tag were deployed using different attachment procedures on red-tailed tropicbirds Phaethon rubricauda foraging in different seasons. 3. Bench tests showed that individual acceleration axes required a two- level cor-rection to eliminate measurement error. This resulted in DBA differences of up to 5% between calibrated and uncalibrated tags for humans walking at a range of speeds. Device position was associated with greater variation in DBA, with upper and lower back- mounted tags varying by 9% in pigeons, and tail- and back- mounted tags varying by 13% in kittiwakes. The tropicbird study highlighted the difficulties of attributing changes in signal amplitude to a single factor when confounding influences tend to covary, as DBA varied by 25% between seasons. 4. Accelerometer accuracy, tag placement and attachment critically affect the sig-nal amplitude and thereby the ability of the system to detect biologically mean-ingful phenomena. We propose a simple method to calibrate ... |
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