title: Is spatial autocorrelation an intrinsic property of territory size?
abstract: In animals, competition for space and resources often results in territorial behaviour. The size of a territory is an important correlate of fitness and is primarily determined by the spatial distribution of resources and by interactions between competing individuals. Both of these determinants, alone or in interaction, could lead to spatial non-independence of territory size (i.e. spatial autocorrelation). We investigated the presence and magnitude of spatial autocorrelation (SAC) in territory size using Monte Carlo simulations of the most widely used territory measures. We found significant positive SAC in a wide array of competition-simulated conditions. A meta-analysis of territory size data showed that SAC is also a feature of territories mapped based on behavioural observations. Our results strongly suggest that SAC is an intrinsic trait of any territory measure. Hence, we recommend that appropriate statistical methods should be employed for the analysis of data sets where territory size is either a dependent or an explanatory variable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany. valcu@orn.mpg.de
authors.forename: Mihai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valcu
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kempenaers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D009010:Monte Carlo Method