Collaborative Research: EAGER-NEON: NEON Sites as a Platform for Transformative Wildlife Research

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Knowing where animals choose to spend their time and why they may have chosen those areas is fundamental to conserving our nation's wildlife. For decades, ecologists have been studying animal movement behaviors using radio-telemetry and more recently global positioning systems (GPS). GPS technology has recently advanced such that many smaller animals can now be accurately and intensively tracked. Additionally, the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) has begun collecting detailed environmental data at sites throughout North America. The NEON platform and new GPS technologies offer an unprecedented opportunity to merge highly accurate animal movement data with equally accurate environmental data to better understand how animals interact with their environment and predict how they may do so into the future. In this project, researchers propose to use the southeastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) as a model for demonstrating how linking NEON and animal movement data can transform wildlife research by allowing scientists to obtain a detailed look into how animals are influenced by, and interact with their environment. Researchers hope to use lessons learned from this project to provide guidance for broader implementation of these technologies across NEON sites, ultimately increasing the capacity of scientists to better understand how organisms interact with their environment. Additionally, the researchers plan to share information and develop educational tools (e.g., web sites showing southeastern fox squirrel movements, videos of simulated animal movement paths, classroom presentations of tools and techniques, etc.) for use in public school systems via local science education initiatives. Investigators will affix small GPS receivers to southeastern fox squirrels to monitor fine-scaled spatiotemporal movements at NEON sites in southwestern Georgia and central Florida. Environmental data will be obtained from NEON for each of these sites. Fox squirrel locations and movements will be modeled as functions of predictor variables obtained from NEON. These efforts will provide an example of linking highly accurate spatial data to address how animals move and interact with their environment at fine scales and across broad areas. The goals of the project are to provide: (1) proof of concept, (2) assessment of the current NEON data collection schedule relative to animal movements, and (3) suggestions for implementation of high-resolution animal movement studies across NEON domains. Researchers will archive data associated with this project at the University of Florida where it will be available for public access and use.