Compositional analysis and GIS for study of habitat selection by goshawks in southeast Alaska

We review compositional analysis for testing whether animals use habitats in proportion to their availability (i.e., random use). We illustrate aspects of this method with goshawk habitat use data collected in southeast Alaska. Compositional analysis addresses several inadequacies of other habitat s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of agricultural, biological, and environmental statistics biological, and environmental statistics, 1998, Vol.3 (3), p.280-295
Main Authors: Pendleton, G.W, Titus, K, DeGayner, E, Flatten, C.J, Lowell, R.E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accipiter gentilis
Datasets
Forest habitats
geographic information systems
Habitat conservation
Habitat destruction
Habitat selection
Proportions
Ratios
statistical analysis
Telemetry
Wildlife habitats
Wildlife management
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Summary:We review compositional analysis for testing whether animals use habitats in proportion to their availability (i.e., random use). We illustrate aspects of this method with goshawk habitat use data collected in southeast Alaska. Compositional analysis addresses several inadequacies of other habitat selection testing approaches. As the appropriate summary measure for use with compositional analyses, we propose the geometric mean selection ratio. However, caution must be used in interpreting results based on compositional analysis. It is not clear what definition of selection (i.e., analysis method) is best in all cases, and hypothesis tests of selection allow only narrow conclusions to be drawn without additional data or assumptions.
ISSN:1085-7117
1537-2693
DOI:10.2307/1400583