Animal tracking moves community ecology: Opportunities and challenges

• Published in: The Journal of animal ecology 2022-07, Vol.91 (7), p.1334-1344
• Main Authors: Costa‐Pereira, Raul, Moll, Remington J., Jesmer, Brett R., Jetz, Walter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Applied Ecology; Community Ecology; Concept; Conservation Ecology; Conspecifics; Data collection; Dispersal; Dispersion; ecological interactions; Ecology; Ecosystem; Empirical analysis; Environmental conditions; environmental niche; Environmental organizations; GPS‐tracking; Integration; intraspecific variation; Landscape Ecology; Mathematical analysis; Movement; Movement Ecology; Remote sensing; Spatial Ecology; Telemetry; Tracking; Trophic Interactions; Variation
• ISSN: 0021-8790; 1365-2656
• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13698

Individual decisions regarding how, why and when organisms interact with one another and with their environment scale up to shape patterns and processes in communities. Recent evidence has firmly established the prevalence of intraspecific variation in nature and its relevance in community ecology, yet challenges associated with collecting data on large numbers of individual conspecifics and heterospecifics have hampered integration of individual variation into community ecology. Nevertheless, recent technological and statistical advances in GPS‐tracking, remote sensing and behavioural ecology offer a toolbox for integrating intraspecific variation into community processes. More than simply describing where organisms go, movement data provide unique information about interactions and environmental associations from which a true individual‐to‐community framework can be built. By linking the movement paths of both conspecifics and heterospecifics with environmental data, ecologists can now simultaneously quantify intraspecific and interspecific variation regarding the Eltonian (biotic interactions) and Grinnellian (environmental conditions) factors underpinning community assemblage and dynamics, yet substantial logistical and analytical challenges must be addressed for these approaches to realize their full potential. Across communities, empirical integration of Eltonian and Grinnellian factors can support conservation applications and reveal metacommunity dynamics via tracking‐based dispersal data. As the logistical and analytical challenges associated with multi‐species tracking are surmounted, we envision a future where individual movements and their ecological and environmental signatures will bring resolution to many enduring issues in community ecology. Resumo Decisões tomadas por indivíduos sobre como, por que e quando organismos interagem uns com ou outros e com o ambiente moldam padrões e processos em comunidades. Evidências recentes estabeleceram fortemente a prevalência da variação intraespecífica na natureza e sua relevância para a ecologia de comunidades. Entretanto, uma série de desafios associados com a coleta de dados empíricos em um número representativo de indivíduos conspecíficos e heterospecíficos tem dificultado a integração da variação individual na ecologia de comunidades. No entanto, desenvolvimentos tecnológicos e estatísticos recentes em técnicas de rastreamento por GPS, sensoriamento remoto e ecologia comportamental oferecem as fer