Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2006
Publication Title
Journal of Experimental Biology
Volume
209
First Page
128
Last Page
140
DOI
10.1242/jeb.01970
Disciplines
Biology | Marine Biology
Abstract
Interpolation of geolocation or Argos tracking data is a necessity for habitat use analyses of marine vertebrates. In a fluid marine environment, characterized by curvilinear structures, linearly interpolated track data are not realistic. Based on these two facts, we interpolated tracking data from albatrosses, penguins, boobies, sea lions, fur seals and elephant seals using six mathematical algorithms. Given their popularity in mathematical computing, we chose Bézier, hermite and cubic splines, in addition to a commonly used linear algorithm to interpolate data. Performance of interpolation methods was compared with different temporal resolutions representative of the less-precise geolocation and the more-precise Argos tracking techniques. Parameters from interpolated sub-sampled tracks were compared with those obtained from intact tracks. Average accuracy of the interpolated location was not affected by the interpolation method and was always within the precision of the tracking technique used. However, depending on the species tested, some curvilinear interpolation algorithms produced greater occurrences of more accurate locations, compared with the linear interpolation method. Total track lengths were consistently underestimated but were always more accurate using curvilinear interpolation than linear interpolation. Curvilinear algorithms are safe to use because accuracy, shape and length of the tracks are either not different or are slightly enhanced and because analyses always remain conservative. The choice of the curvilinear algorithm does not affect the resulting track dramatically so it should not preclude their use. We thus recommend using curvilinear interpolation techniques because of the more realistic fluid movements of animals. We also provide some guidelines for choosing an algorithm that is most likely to maximize track quality for different types of marine vertebrates.
Recommended Citation
Y Tremblay, Scott A. Shaffer, S L. Fowler, C E. Kuhn, B I. McDonald, M J. Weise, C -A Bost, H Weimerskirch, D E. Crocker, M E. Goebel, and D P. Costa. "Interpolation of tracking data in a fluid environment" Journal of Experimental Biology (2006): 128-140. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.01970
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Comments
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons–Attribution 3.0 Unported license and was originally published in theJournal of Experimental Biology.