Integrating animal tracking and trait data to facilitate global ecological discoveries

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60460709%3A41330%2F25%3A103626" target="_blank" >RIV/60460709:41330/25:103626 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.247981" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.247981</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.247981" target="_blank" >10.1242/jeb.247981</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Integrating animal tracking and trait data to facilitate global ecological discoveries

Original language description

Understanding animal movement is at the core of ecology, evolution and conservation science. Big data approaches for animal tracking have facilitated impactful synthesis research on spatial biology and behavior in ecologically important and human-impacted regions. Similarly, databases of animal traits (e.g. body size, limb length, locomotion method, lifespan) have been used for a wide range of comparative questions, with emerging data being shared at the level of individuals and populations. Here, we argue that the proliferation of both types of publicly available data creates exciting opportunities to unlock new avenues of research, such as spatial planning and ecological forecasting. We assessed the feasibility of combining animal tracking and trait databases to develop and test hypotheses across geographic, temporal and biological allometric scales. We identified multiple research questions addressing performance and distribution constraints that could be answered by integrating trait and tracking data. For example, how do physiological (e.g. metabolic rates) and migration distances? We illustrate the potential of our framework with three case studies that effectively integrate trait and tracking data for comparative research. An important challenge ahead is the lack of taxonomic and spatial overlap in trait and tracking databases. We identify critical next steps for future integration of tracking and trait databases, with the most impactful being open and interlinked individual-level data. Coordinated efforts to combine trait and tracking databases will accelerate global ecological and evolutionary insights and inform conservation and management decisions in our changing world.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

10618 - Ecology

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

ISSN

0022-0949

e-ISSN

0022-0949

Volume of the periodical

228

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

—

UT code for WoS article

001451262600012

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85219160747