Data from: Novel, continuous monitoring of fine-scale movement using fixed-position radiotelemetry arrays and random forest location fingerprinting

1. Radio-tag signals from fixed-position antennas are most often used to indicate presence/absence of individuals, or to estimate individual activity levels from signal strength variation within an antenna’s detection zone. The potential of such systems to provide more precise information on tag location and movement has not been explored in great detail in an ecological setting.
2. By reversing the roles that transmitters and receivers play in localization methods common to the telecommunications industry, we present a new telemetric tool for accurately estimating the location of tagged individuals from received signal strength values. The methods used to characterize the study area in terms of received signal strength are described, as is the random forest model used for localization. The resulting method is then validated using test data before being applied to true data collected from tagged individuals in the study site.
3. Application of the localization method to test data withheld from the learning dataset indicated a low average error over the entire study area (< 1m) while application of the localization method to real data produced highly probable results consistent with field observations.
4. This telemetric approach provided detailed movement data for tagged fish along a single axis (a migratory path) and is particularly useful for monitoring passage along migratory routes. The new methods applied in this study can also be expanded to include multiple axes (x, y, z) and multiple environments (aquatic and terrestrial) for remotely monitoring wildlife movement.

1. 基于固定位置天线的无线电标记（Radio-tag）信号，通常用于标识个体的出现或消失情况，亦可通过天线探测区域内的信号强度变化估算个体的活动水平。然而，此类系统在生态学场景中获取标记个体位置与移动的更精准信息的潜力，尚未得到充分细致的探索。
2. 本研究颠覆了电信行业通用定位方法中发射机与接收机的角色分工，提出了一种全新的遥测工具，可基于接收信号强度值精准估算标记个体的位置。本文详述了基于接收信号强度表征研究区域的方法，以及用于定位的随机森林（Random Forest）模型。所得方法首先通过测试数据完成验证，随后才应用于研究场地中标记个体的实测采集数据。
3. 将本定位方法应用于从训练数据集预留的测试数据后，结果显示整个研究区域内的平均误差极低（<1米）；而将该方法应用于实测数据时，所得结果置信度极高，且与野外观测结果高度一致。
4. 该遥测方法可为沿单一轴线（洄游路径）活动的标记鱼类提供详尽的移动数据，尤其适用于监测沿洄游路线的通行情况。本研究采用的新型方法还可进一步拓展，支持多轴线（x、y、z）与多环境（水生、陆生）场景，用于远程监测野生动物的移动行为。