Measuring repeatability of compositional diet estimates: An example using quantitative fatty acid signature analysis.

ABSTRACT: By measuring the temporal consistency, or repeatability, in the diets of predators, we can gain a better understanding of the degree of individual specialization in resource utilization and implications for predator-prey interactions, population dynamics, and food web structure. To measure repeatability, we require repeated diet estimates of individuals over time, such as those derived from quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA), a popular diet estimation technique. However, diet estimates are often lengthy compositional vectors with many zeros, as some prey will not be consumed by all individuals, precluding the use of previously proposed measures of repeatability. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for inferring repeatability for multivariate data and, in particular,

SUBMITTER: Stewart C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9608821 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature