Table 2.
Space-Use Metrics & Methods (in the context of movement ecology)
| Featureless Landscapes | Description | Suggested References |
|---|---|---|
| Home range estimation | The estimation of habitually-used areas with function-dependent boundaries (e.g. summer range, defended territory, core territory). Most commonly accomplished using densities of use calculated from estimates of the animals’ locations across a landscape | Powell and Mitchell 2012, Fieberg and Borger 2012 |
| Utilization distribution | Relative frequency distributions of an animal’s location over space for a specified period of time | Worton 1989 |
| Home range fidelity | Measures of home-range overlap among individuals (e.g., volumes of intersection) and home-range stability over time | Fieberg and Kochanny 2005, Millspaugh et al. 2004 |
| Core area methods | Analyses for identifying areas of most consistent use/selection from individuals’ relocation histories | Vander Wal and Rodgers 2012 |
| Conspecific proximity methods | Methods for estimating and characterizing the interactions among and impact of conspecifics on movement trajectories | Delgado et al. 2014 |
| Featured Landscapes | ||
| Resource selection functions (RSFs) | Statistical models producing values proportional to the probability of use of a resource unit. RSFs are often constructed using a logistic regression framework comparing points used by an animal to those “available” to it within its home range | Manly et al. 2002, Boyce and McDonald 1999 |
| Step selection functions (SSF) | A model of resource selection that includes movement behavior to constrain selection and availability. In an SSF, each step at time t is paired with one or more random steps with the same starting point drawn at random from a distribution of step lengths and turning angles. | Thurfjell et al. 2014 |
| Landscape resistance | Measure of the relative difficulty (e.g., energy used per unit distance moved) for individuals to move as a function of topography and environmental features | Zeller et al. 2012 |
| Least cost methods | Analyses for finding the least difficult (least energy expended) path between two points. May be extended to avoid risks of encountering competitors, predators, etc. | Walker and Craighead 1997, Adriaensen et al. 2003 |
| Circuit theory | An application of electrical circuit theory to model landscape connectivity and resistance through graph and random walk theories | McRae et al. 2008 |