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. 固定位置天线采集的无线电标记信号，通常用于指示标记个体的存在与否，或通过天线探测区域内的信号强度变化估算个体活动水平。此类系统若要提供关于标记个体位置与移动的更精准信息，其潜力在生态学场景中尚未得到深入细致的探索。
2. 本研究逆转了电信行业通用定位方法中发射器与接收器的角色分工，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。本文阐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模型。随后，研究先用测试数据对所提方法进行验证，再将其应用于研究站点中标记个体的实测采集数据。
3. 将定位方法应用于学习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定位误差极低（<1米）；而将该方法应用于实测数据时，所得结果可信度极高，且与野外实地观测结果一致。
4. 该遥测方法可沿单一轴（即迁徙路径）为标记鱼类提供精细化的移动数据，尤其适用于监测沿迁徙路线的个体通行情况。本研究采用的新方法还可拓展至多轴（x、y、z轴）及多种环境（水生与陆生），以实现野生动物移动的远程监测。