Techniques and Concepts in Movement Ecology

With applications in R

Preface

This is a living (and collaborative) document which serves in part as course materials for a Techniques and Concepts in Spatial and Movement Ecology - a graduate-level course I am currently (Fall 2025) teaching in the Dep’t of Environmental Biology at SUNY-ESF. But it is also being developed - perhaps presumptuously - as the beginnings of a book. It is, perhaps, far more typical for people who embark on putting together a “book” to first teach a course for several years (or decades!) before making the leap into a text. But the smoothness of generating these materials in an organized way makes the line between course materials and a book somewhat blurred¹.

¹ Much appreciation for the efforts of the team behind Quarto and - in particular - for the template we baldly borrowed in R for Data Science (2e), for blurring these lines in the best possible way.

Lectures will gradually be modified into something resemble “chapters”. The structure might change, more materials might flow in or out, references will be added, some proof-reading might occur, and there may be some more ephemeral course specific materials popping up here and there. While the course is being taught, it may be a somewhat chaotic and dynamic place. There will be incomplete sentences and incomplete thoughts and yawning gaps. But the goal of this effort is, really, to put together the modern digital equivalent of a book that serves as a single, organized source for mathematical, statistical and computational techniques, complete with examples, for the modeling and analysis of movement (and other kinds of spatial) data.

Note: This is an open project! Any suggestions, corrections, additions, materials, feedback, please do email me.

The authors: E. Gurarie, N. Barbour, O. Couriot, others.