Tracking animals in freshwater with electronic tags: past, present and future

By S. Cooke, J. Midwood, J. Thiem, P. Klimley, M. Lucas, E. Thorstad, J. Eiler, C. Holbrook, B. Ebner. Animal Biotelemetry, 2013

327 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Considerable technical developments over the past half century have enabled widespread application of electronic tags to the study of animals in the wild, including in freshwater environments. We review the constraints associated with freshwater telemetry and biologging and the technical developments relevant to their use. Technical constraints for tracking animals are often influenced by the characteristics of the animals being studied and the environment they inhabit. Collectively, they influence which and how technologies can be used and their relative effectiveness. Although radio telemetry has historically been the most commonly used technology in freshwater, passive integrated transponder (PIT) technology, acoustic telemetry and biologgers are becoming more popular. Most telemetry studies have focused on fish, although an increasing number have focused on other taxa, such as turtles, crustaceans and molluscs. Key technical developments for freshwater systems include: miniaturization of tags for tracking small-size life stages and species, fixed stations and coded tags for tracking large samples of animals over long distances and large temporal scales, inexpensive PIT systems that enable mass tagging to yield population- and community-level relevant sample sizes, incorporation of sensors into electronic tags, validation of tag attachment procedures with a focus on maintaining animal welfare, incorporation of different techniques (for example, genetics, stable isotopes) and peripheral technologies (for example, geographic information systems, hydroacoustics), development of novel analytical techniques, and extensive international collaboration. Innovations are still needed in tag miniaturization, data analysis and visualization, and in tracking animals over larger spatial scales (for example, pelagic areas of lakes) and in challenging environments (for example, large dynamic floodplain systems, under ice). There seems to be a particular need for adapting various global positioning system and satellite tagging approaches to freshwater. Electronic tagging provides a mechanism to collect detailed information from imperilled animals and species that have no direct economic value. Current and future advances will continue to improve our knowledge of the natural history of aquatic animals and ecological processes in freshwater ecosystems while facilitating evidence-based resource management and conservation.

Subfields: Nature and Landscape Conservation, Water Science and Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f54fbd4bf470140a1487622615558bd63aa580f7

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. S. Cooke
2. S. Hinch
3. M. Donaldson
4. C. Suski
5. F. Økland
6. A. Fisk
7. E. Thorstad
8. A. Rikardsen

In Water Science and Technology

1. Ahmet Alp
2. S. Cooke
3. F. Økland
4. S. Hinch
5. E. Thorstad
6. A. Rikardsen

Citations in the corpus

• Ecological and Evolutionary Consequences of Environmental Change and Management Actions for Migrating Fish (2019, background): “However, recent technological developments in bio-logging have advanced the ability to obtain high-resolution data on fish movements, inform about internal and external drivers of movements, help illuminate the consequences of movements for individual performance and population fitness, and provide ”
• Making connections in aquatic ecosystems with acoustic telemetry monitoring (2014, background): “…monitoring, but several methods and approaches have been proposed to minimize tagging effects (eg rapid capture, careful handling, sterile surgical methods, experienced technicians; Cooke et al. 2013b) and to account for surgical effects in experimental designs and analyses (eg Thiem et al. 2011).”
• The effects of modern war and military activities on biodiversity and the environment (2015, background): “…of these devices (Cooke 2008) but it has permitted them to be 852 deployed on a greater number of species/weight classes as the mass of the tag has often been a 853 limiting factor in determining the lower size limit of their use (Olival and Higuchi 2006; Bridge 854 et al. 2011; Cooke et al. 2013).”
• Evaluation of an acoustic telemetry transmitter designed to identify predation events (2017, background): “The field of acoustic telemetry is evolving rapidly, facilitating the study of increasingly small animals in increasingly challenging environments (Cooke et al. 2013; Hussey et al. 2015).”
• The Use of Electronic Tags in Fish Research - An Overview of Fish Telemetry Methods (2013, background): “…tags has proven to be a powerful and effective technology for studying movements, migrations and habitat use of individual free swimming fish and other aquatic animals in fresh water, estuaries, near coastal areas and the oceans (Lucas and Baras, 2000; Heupel et al., 2006, Cooke et al., 2013).”