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NJIT Mathematical Biology Seminar

Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 2:30pm
Cullimore Hall 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

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Mathematical Ecology "Open Problems Forum": Modeling Home Ranges and Habitat Selection

Gareth Russell

Department of Biological Sciences & Department of Mathematical Sciences, NJIT

Animals move around on landscapes that are complex mosaics of both continuous variables (e.g., temperature, distance from water) and categorial variables (e.g., 'habitat types'). These movements may be driven by these variables ('habitat preference'), as well as energetic and other considerations (fidelity to a single location, such as a nest or den). Increasing amounts of data on both movements (sequences of x,y locations) and landscapes (usually rectangular arrays of values or categories) are available. An open problem concerns how to tease apart the various influences on movement behavior. This is important because, for example, habitat preferences cannot be properly estimated unless energetic and other constraints are taken into account. I will present the problem, demonstrate an approach that myself and some collaborators developed for assessing the habitat preferences of elephants in various African reserves, and then open the session up for 'round-table' discussion. This topic should be of interest to statisticians as well as applied mathematicians.