Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1002/ecy.70300
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Clarifying space use concepts in ecology: Range vs. occurrence distributions
Autor Alston, J.M.; Fleming, C.H.; Noonan, M.J.; Tucker, M.A.; Silva, I.; Folta, C.; Akre, T.S.B.; Ali, A.H.; Belant, J.L.; Beyer, D.; Blaum, N.; Böhning-Gaese, K.; Cunha de Paula, R.; Dekker, J.; Drescher-Lehman, J.; Farwig, N.; Fichtel, C.; Fischer, C.; Ford, A.T.; Janssen, R.; Jeltsch, F.; Kappeler, P.M.; LaPoint, S.D.; Markham, A.C.; Medici, E.P.; Gonçalves Morato, R.; Nathan, R.; Olson, K.A.; Patterson, B.D.; Petroelje, T.R.; Ramalho, E.E.; Rösner, S.; Oliveira Santos, L.G.R.; Schabo, D.G.; Selva, N.; Sergiel, A.; Spiegel, O.; Ullmann, W.; Zięba, F.; Zwijacz-Kozica, T.; Wittemyer, G.; Fagan, W.F.; Müller, T.; Calabrese, J.M.
Quelle Ecology
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
Department OESA; GF
Band/Volume 107
Heft 3
Seite von e70300
Sprache englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Daten-/Softwarelinks https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2379
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v5051j2
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.45157
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17676444
Supplements Supplement 1
Keywords Brownian bridge movement model; home range; kernel density estimation; Kriging; movement ecology; movement model; space use; stochastic process models; utilization distribution
Abstract Quantifying animal movements is necessary for answering a wide array of research questions in ecology and conservation biology. Consequently, ecologists have made considerable efforts to identify the best way to estimate an animal’s home range, and many methods of estimating home ranges have arisen over the past half century. Most of these methods fall into two distinct categories of estimators that have only recently been described in statistical detail: those that measure range distributions (methods such as Kernel Density Estimation that quantify the long-run behavior of a movement process that features restricted space use) and those that measure occurrence distributions (methods such as Brownian Bridge Movement Models and the Correlated Random Walk Library that quantify uncertainty in an animal movement path during a specific period of observation). In this paper, we use theory, simulations, and empirical analysis to demonstrate the importance of applying these two classes of space use estimators appropriately and distinctly. Conflating range and occurrence distributions can have serious consequences for ecological inference and conservation practice. For example, in most situations, home-range estimates quantified using occurrence estimators are too small, and this problem is exacerbated by ongoing improvements in tracking technology that enable more frequent and more accurate data on animal movements. We encourage researchers to use range estimators to estimate the area of home ranges and occurrence estimators to answer other questions in movement ecology, such as when and where an animal crosses a linear feature, visits a location of interest, or interacts with other animals.
Alston, J.M., Fleming, C.H., Noonan, M.J., Tucker, M.A., Silva, I., Folta, C., Akre, T.S.B., Ali, A.H., Belant, J.L., Beyer, D., Blaum, N., Böhning-Gaese, K., Cunha de Paula, R., Dekker, J., Drescher-Lehman, J., Farwig, N., Fichtel, C., Fischer, C., Ford, A.T., Janssen, R., Jeltsch, F., Kappeler, P.M., LaPoint, S.D., Markham, A.C., Medici, E.P., Gonçalves Morato, R., Nathan, R., Olson, K.A., Patterson, B.D., Petroelje, T.R., Ramalho, E.E., Rösner, S., Oliveira Santos, L.G.R., Schabo, D.G., Selva, N., Sergiel, A., Spiegel, O., Ullmann, W., Zięba, F., Zwijacz-Kozica, T., Wittemyer, G., Fagan, W.F., Müller, T., Calabrese, J.M. (2026):
Clarifying space use concepts in ecology: Range vs. occurrence distributions
Ecology 107 (3), e70300
10.1002/ecy.70300