Unexpectedly high precision of consumer-grade GPS units for small-scale animal movement studies

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1 Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States of America
2 Harvard Forest, Harvard University, Petersham, MA, United States of America
3 Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States of America
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.1158v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Animal Behavior, Ecology, Entomology
Keywords
Tracking methods, Euphydrays, Butterfly movement., Animal tracking, Insect movement, Movement ecology, Checkerspot butterflies
Copyright
© 2015 Breed et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Breed GA, Severns PM. 2015. Unexpectedly high precision of consumer-grade GPS units for small-scale animal movement studies. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1158v1

Abstract

Consumer-grade GPS units are a staple of modern field ecology, but the relatively large error radii reported by manufacturers (up to 10 meters) ostensibly precludes their utility in measuring fine-scale movement of small animals such as insects. Here we demonstrate that for data collected at fine spatio-temporal scales, these devices can produce exceptionally precise data on step-length and movement patterns of small animals. With an understanding of the properties of GPS error and how it arises, it is possible, using a simple field protocol, to use consumer grade GPS units to collect step-length data for the movement of small animals that introduces a median of 11 cm of error. Such small errors make these inexpensive units useful for measuring insect and other small animal movements on small to intermediate scales on budgets that are orders of magnitude lower than the survey-grade units used in past studies. As an additional advantage, these units are much simpler to operate and insect or other small animal trackways can be collected more quickly than either survey-grade units or more traditional ruler / gird approaches.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Raw butterfly movement data

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.1158v1/supp-1