Michelot, T., Gloaguen, P., Blackwell, P.G. orcid.org/0000-0002-3141-4914 et al. (1 more author) (2019) The Langevin diffusion as a continuous‐time model of animal movement and habitat selection. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10 (11). pp. 1894-1907. ISSN 2041-210X
Abstract
1. The utilization distribution of an animal describes the relative probability of space use. It is natural to think of it as the long‐term consequence of the animal's short‐term movement decisions: it is the accumulation of small displacements which, over time, gives rise to global patterns of space use. However, many estimation methods for the utilization distribution either assume the independence of observed locations and ignore the underlying movement (e.g. kernel density estimation), or are based on simple Brownian motion movement rules (e.g. Brownian bridges).
2. We introduce a new continuous‐time model of animal movement, based on the Langevin diffusion. This stochastic process has an explicit stationary distribution, conceptually analogous to the idea of the utilization distribution, and thus provides an intuitive framework to integrate movement and space use. We model the stationary (utilization) distribution with a resource selection function to link the movement to spatial covariates, and allow inference about habitat preferences of animals.
3. Standard approximation techniques can be used to derive the pseudo‐likelihood of the Langevin diffusion movement model, and to estimate habitat preference and movement parameters from tracking data. We investigate the performance of the method on simulated data, and discuss its sensitivity to the time scale of the sampling. We present an example of its application to tracking data of Steller sea lions Eumetopias jubatus.
4. Due to its continuous‐time formulation, this method can be applied to irregular telemetry data. The movement model is specified using a habitat‐dependent utilization distribution, and it provides a rigorous framework to estimate long‐term habitat selection from correlated movement data. The Langevin movement model can be written as a linear model, which allows for very fast inference. Standard tools such as residuals can be used for model checking.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | animal movement; continuous time; habitat selection; Langevin diffusion; potential function; resource selection; step selection; utilization distribution |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Mathematics and Statistics (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jan 2020 15:37 |
Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2020 01:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/2041-210x.13275 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:154894 |