Paul R Moorcroft and Alex Barnett (2007)
Mechanistic home range models and resource selection analysis: a reconciliation and unification
Ecology (in press).
In the three decades since its introduction, resource selection analysis (RSA) has
become a widespread method for analyzing spatial patterns of animal relocations
obtained from telemetry studies. Recently, mechanistic home range models have
been proposed as an alternative framework for studying patterns of animal space
use. In contrast to RSA models, mechanistic home range models are derived from
underlying mechanistic descriptions of individual movement behavior and yield
spatially-explicit predictions for patterns of animal space-use. In addition, their
mechanistic underpinning means that, unlike RSA, mechanistic home range models
can also be used to predict changes in space-use following perturbation. In this
paper, we develop a formal reconciliation between these two methods of home range
analysis, showing how differences in the habitat preferences of individuals give rise
to spatially-explicit patterns of space-use. The resulting unified framework
combines the simplicity of resource selection analysis with the spatially-explicit and
predictive capabilities of mechanistic home range models.