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An Evaluation of the Accuracy and Performance of Lightweight GPS Collars in a Suburban Environment
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 7, p e68496 (2013)
- Publication Year :
- 2013
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2013.
-
Abstract
- The recent development of lightweight GPS collars has enabled medium-to-small sized animals to be tracked via GPS telemetry. Evaluation of the performance and accuracy of GPS collars is largely confined to devices designed for large animals for deployment in natural environments. This study aimed to assess the performance of lightweight GPS collars within a suburban environment, which may be different from natural environments in a way that is relevant to satellite signal acquisition. We assessed the effects of vegetation complexity, sky availability (percentage of clear sky not obstructed by natural or artificial features of the environment), proximity to buildings, and satellite geometry on fix success rate (FSR) and location error (LE) for lightweight GPS collars within a suburban environment. Sky availability had the largest affect on FSR, while LE was influenced by sky availability, vegetation complexity, and HDOP (Horizontal Dilution of Precision). Despite the complexity and modified nature of suburban areas, values for FSR (mean= 90.6%) and LE (mean = 30.1 m) obtained within the suburban environment are comparable to those from previous evaluations of GPS collars designed for larger animals and within less built-up environments. Due to fine-scale patchiness of habitat within urban environments, it is recommended that resource selection methods that are not reliant on buffer sizes be utilised for selection studies.
- Subjects :
- Geographic information system
Ecological Metrics
Materials Science
lcsh:Medicine
Biology
Environment
Engineering
Electronics Engineering
Satellite geometry
Spatial and Landscape Ecology
Humans
Urban Ecology
lcsh:Science
Ecosystem
Remote sensing
Dilution of precision
Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Geography
business.industry
Physics
lcsh:R
Vegetation
Models, Theoretical
Satellite Communications
Terrestrial Environments
Geophysics
Physical Geography
Software deployment
Electronic Materials
Global Positioning System
Communications satellite
Earth Sciences
Geographic Information Systems
Microtechnology
lcsh:Q
Satellite
business
Research Article
Ecological Environments
New Zealand
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 8
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....52615a4b554594c2ab3d4676809552f8