Skip to main content
Dryad

The R package enerscape: A general energy landscape framework for terrestrial movement ecology

Cite this dataset

Berti, Emilio et al. (2021). The R package enerscape: A general energy landscape framework for terrestrial movement ecology [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.wwpzgmskm

Abstract

  1. Ecological processes and biodiversity patterns are strongly affected by how animals move through the landscape. However, it remains challenging to predict animal movement and space use. Here we present our new R package enerscape to quantify and predict animal movement in real landscapes based on energy expenditure.

  2. Enerscape integrates a general locomotory model for terrestrial animals with GIS tools in order to map energy costs of movement in a given environment, resulting in energy landscapes that reflect how energy expenditures may shape habitat use. Enerscape only requires topographic data (elevation) and the body mass of the studied animal. To illustrate the potential of enerscape, we analyze the energy landscape for the Marsican bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus) in a protected area in central Italy in order to identify least-cost paths and high-connectivity areas with low energy costs of travel.

  3. Enerscape allowed us to identify travel routes for the bear that minimize energy costs of movement and regions that have high landscape connectivity based on movement efficiency, highlighting potential corridors. It also identifies areas where high energy costs may prevent movement and dispersal, potentially exacerbating human-wildlife conflicts in the park. A major strength of enerscape is that it requires only widely available topographic and body size data. As such, enerscape permits a first cost-effective way to estimate landscape use and movement corridors even when telemetry data is not readily available, such as for the example with the bear.

  4. Enerscape is built in a modular way and other movement modes and ecosystem types can be implemented when appropriate locomotory models are available. In summary, enerscape is a new general tool that quantifies, using minimal and widely available data, the energy costs of moving through a landscape. This can clarify how and why animals move in real landscapes and inform practical conservation and restoration decisions.

Methods

This data repository contains only the shapefiles and javascript code that were not publicly available, but needed to reproduce the analysis of the linked article. All other publicly available data sources, which were not included in this data repository, were:

Usage notes

This readme.txt file was generated on 2021-10-20 by Emilio Berti

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: The R package enerscape: A general energy landscape framework for terrestrial movement ecology

2. Author Information
    A. Corresponding author
        Name: Emilio Berti
        Institution: German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
        Address: Puschstrasse 4, Leipzig, Germany
        Email: emilio.berti@idiv.de

3. Date of data collection: 2016-2017

4. Geographic location of data collection:
    A. Rewilding site in Mols-Bjerge, Denmark

SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION

1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: CC0 "No Rights Reserved"

2. Links to publications that cite or use the data: 
    A. "The r package enerscape: A general energy landscape framework for terrestrial movement ecology. Berti et al. (2021). Methods in Ecology and Evolution (in press)"

DATA & FILE OVERVIEW

1. Directory tree: 
.
├── enerscape_0.1.3.tar.gz
├── mols-bjerge
│   ├── Mols.dbf
│   ├── Mols.prj
│   ├── Mols.shp
│   └── Mols.shx
├── monthly-ndvi.js
└── readme.txt

1 directory, 7 files

    1.1 enerscape_0.1.3.tar.gz is the last version of the R package ENERSCAPE

    1.2 mols-bjerge contains the shapefiels (Mols.*) of the rewilding site in Mols-Bjerge

    1.3 monthly-ndvi.js is the javascript code to get NDVI from Sentinel-2 imagery using Google Earth Engine.

. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: 

4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? no
    
METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION

1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: 
Shapefiles for the Mols Bjerge rewilding site were obtained from GPS localization of electric fences where all studied animals lived.

2. Methods for processing the data: 
Shapefile data was not processed.

DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: enerscape_0.1.3.tar.gz
This is the current version of the enerscape package in CRAN. A version in active development can be found at: https://github.com/emilio-berti/enerscape
 

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Award: FZT 118

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Award: BR 2315/21-1

The Velux Foundations, Award: 16549

Research Fund Denmark: Natural Sciences project MegaComplexity, Award: 0135-00225B