Australia\u2019s continental-scale acoustic tracking database and its automated quality control process

Xavier Hoenner,Andre Steckenreuter,Charlie Huveneers,Benedicte Pasquer,Vinay Udyawer,Russ Babcock,Natalia Atkins,Colin Simpfendorfer,Michelle Heupel,Robert Harcourt,Fabrice Jaine,Hamish Campbell,Roger Proctor,Stephanie Brodie,Katherine Tattersall,Matthew D Taylor,Jonathan Burgess

doi:10.1038/sdata.2017.206

Abstract

Our ability to predict species responses to environmental changes relies on accurate records of animal movement patterns. Continental-scale acoustic telemetry networks are increasingly being established worldwide, producing large volumes of information-rich geospatial data. During the last decade, the Integrated Marine Observing System’s Animal Tracking Facility (IMOS ATF) established a permanent array of acoustic receivers around Australia. Simultaneously, IMOS developed a centralised national database to foster collaborative research across the user community and quantify individual behaviour across a broad range of taxa. Here we present the database and quality control procedures developed to collate 49.6 million valid detections from 1891 receiving stations. This dataset consists of detections for 3,777 tags deployed on 117 marine species, with distances travelled ranging from a few to thousands of kilometres. Connectivity between regions was only made possible by the joint contribution of IMOS infrastructure and researcher-funded receivers. This dataset constitutes a valuable resource facilitating meta-analysis of animal movement, distributions, and habitat use, and is important for relating species distribution shifts with environmental covariates.

Highlights

Background & SummaryEnvironmental changes affect the distribution and movements of marine species at different spatiotemporal scales[1,2]
Broad-scale integrated networks, composed of acoustic receivers deployed by individual research groups, have become established including in Australia (Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)), North America (Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry, California Fish Tracking Consortium, Florida Acoustic Cooperative Telemetry), and South Africa (Acoustic Tracking Array Platform)
Many of these networks are coinvested by the global Ocean Tracking Network (OTN)[3,7,8], and have enhanced collaboration between scientists both nationally and internationally, and facilitated the study of animals moving over broad distances and across management jurisdictions[9]

Summary

Introduction

Background & SummaryEnvironmental changes affect the distribution and movements of marine species at different spatiotemporal scales[1,2]. The latter theme primarily drives IMOS’ Animal Tracking Facility (ATF), which has deployed acoustic telemetry arrays for over ten years across strategically chosen locations around Australia to facilitate connectivity between independent projects and enable detection of large-scale movements of marine organisms.

Results

Conclusion