Figure 3. A data-driven approach to the IBF for optimal study design using archived bio-logging data.

In this example, ecologists begin by selecting appropriate data types for the study of movement patterns in relation to environmental measures at local and global scales. Understanding and predicting how animals respond to global change, including climate and land-use change, requires multiple data collected over a range of temporal and spatial scales. In this case, ecologists start at the central nodes of the IBF (Figure 1) to collate archived data and collaborate with mathematicians, statisticians and geographers (right-hand symbols) to implement the appropriate processing and analytical techniques to interrogate the data and identify patterns by which several questions may be approached. Following this, ecologists may work with other disciplines to deploy additional bio-logging sensors to collect data that complement the shared data.