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The Overlap Package

Meredith, M. and Ridout, Martin S. (2014) The Overlap Package. Central R Archive Network Online. (KAR id:41474)

Abstract

Camera traps - cameras linked to detectors so that they fire when an animal is present - are a major source of information on the abundance and habitat preferences of rare or shy forest animals. Modern cameras record the time of the photo, and the use of this to investigate diel activity patterns was immediately recognised (Gri?ffiths and van Schaik, 1993). Initially this resulted in broad classfication of taxa as diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular, or cathemeral (van Schaik and Gri?ths, 1996). More recently, researchers have compared activity

patterns among species to see how overlapping patterns may relate to competition or predation (Linkie and Ridout, 2011; Carver et al., 2011; Ramesh et al., 2012; Carter et al., 2012; Kamler et al., 2012; Ross et al., 2013).

Ridout and Linkie (2009) presented methods to fit kernel density functions to times of observations of animals and to estimate the coe?cient of overlapping, a quantitative measure ranging from 0 (no overlap) to 1 (identical activity patterns). The code they used forms the basis of the overlap package. Although motivated by the analysis of camera trap data, overlap could be applied to data from other sources such as data loggers, provided data collection is carried out around the clock. Nor is it limited to diel cycles: tidal cycles or seasonal cycles, such as plant flowering or fruiting or animal breeding seasons could also be investigated.

Item Type: Software
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science) > QA276 Mathematical statistics
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Depositing User: Martin Ridout
Date Deposited: 18 Jun 2014 13:48 UTC
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2022 13:46 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/41474 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Ridout, Martin S..

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