A model to illustrate the potential pairing of animal biotelemetry with individual-based modeling

Background Animal biotelemetry and individual-based modeling (IBM) are natural complements, but there are few published examples where they are applied together to address fundamental or applied ecological questions. Existing studies are often found in the modeling literature and frequently re-use small datasets collected for purposes other than the model application. Animal biotelemetry can provide the robust measurements that capture relevant ecological patterns needed to parameterize, calibrate, and assess hypotheses in IBMs; together they could help meet demand for predictive modeling and decision-support in the face of environmental change. Results We used an simple exemplar IBM that uses spatio-temporal movement patterns of 103 acoustic-tagged juvenile yearling Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ), termed ‘smolts’, to quantitatively assess plausibility of two migratory strategies that smolts are hypothesized to use while migrating north through the plume of the Columbia River (United States of America). We find that model smolts that seek to maximize growth demonstrate movement patterns consistent with those of tagged smolts. Model smolts that seek to move quickly out of the plume region by seeking favorable currents do not reproduce the same patterns. Conclusions Animal biotelemetry and individual-based modeling are maturing fields of inquiry. Our hope is that this model description and the basic analytical techniques will effectively illustrate individual-based models for the biotelemetry community, and perhaps inspire new collaborations between biotelemetry researchers and individual-based modelers.