Spatial patterns of movement are fundamental to the ecology of animal
populations, influencing their social organization, mating systems,
demography, and the spatial distribution of prey and competitors.
However, our ability to understand the causes and consequences of animal
home range patterns has been limited by the descriptive nature of the
statistical models used to analyze them. In Mechanistic Home Range
Analysis, Paul Moorcroft and Mark Lewis develop a radically new
framework for studying animal home range patterns based on the analysis
of correlated random work models for individual movement behavior. They
use this framework to develop a series of mechanistic home range models
for carnivore populations.
The authors' analysis illustrates how, in contrast to traditional
statistical home range models that merely describe pattern, mechanistic
home range models can be used to discover the underlying ecological
determinants of home range patterns observed in populations, make
accurate predictions about how spatial distributions of home ranges will
change following environmental or demographic disturbance, and analyze
the functional significance of the movement strategies of individuals
that give rise to observed patterns of space use.
By providing researchers and graduate students of ecology and wildlife
biology with a more illuminating way to analyze animal movement,
Mechanistic Home Range Analysis will be an indispensable reference for
years to come.
