Acoustic accelerometer transmitters and their growing relevance to aquatic science

Abstract

There has recently been great interest in the use of accelerometers onboard electronic transmitters to characterise various aspects of the ecology of wild animals. We review use cases and outline how these tools can provide opportunities for studying activity and survival, exercise physiology of wild animals, the response to stressors, energy landscapes and conservation planning tools, and the means with which to identify behaviours remotely from transmitted data. Accelerometer transmitters typically send data summaries to receivers at fixed intervals after filtering out static acceleration and calculating root-mean square error or overall dynamic body action of 2- or 3-axis acceleration values (often at 5–12.5 Hz) from dynamic acceleration onboard the tag. Despite the popularity of these transmitters among aquatic ecologists, we note that there is wide variation in the sampling frequencies and windows used among studies that will potentially affect the ability to make comparisons in the future. Accelerometer transmitters will likely become increasingly popular tools for studying finer scale details about cryptic species that are difficult to recapture and hence not suitable for studies using data loggers. We anticipate that there will continue to be opportunities to adopt methods used for analysing data from loggers to datasets generated from acceleration transmitters, to generate new knowledge about the ecology of aquatic animals.

TrackdAT, an acoustic telemetry metadata dataset to support aquatic animal tracking research

“…The list above is not exhaustive – TrackdAT has significant opportunity to help inform researchers and managers in many ways, especially as it continues to be developed. Various output using the precursor dataset to TrackdAT already exist, including an evaluation of mortality in AT research 17 , a summary of global trends and application of AT to support management 5 , an assemblage of complementary methods to bolster AT application 18 , and a synthesis of the growing use of acoustic accelerometer transmitters in aquatic science 19 . By sharing this dataset publicly, we hope to create new opportunities to collaborate and consolidate research, and ensure that future work is inclusive, efficient, ethical, cost-effective, and impactful.…”

The power and promise of interdisciplinary international research networks to advance movement ecology

“…Two reviews address particular issues from the movement ecology toolbox, the use of accelerometer transmitters and space-use estimators. Lennox et al [ 16 ] review the use of accelerometers in aquatic sciences. The review includes 53 articles, covering a wide range of aquatic species, including fish, reptiles and invertebrates.…”