The Ecology of Human Mobility.
Mobile phones and other geolocated devices have produced unprecedented volumes of data on human movement. Analysis of pooled individual human trajectories using big data approaches has revealed a wealth of emergent features that have ecological parallels in animals across a diverse array of phenomena including commuting, epidemics, the spread of innovations and culture, and collective behaviour. Movement ecology, which explores how animals cope with and optimize variability in resources, has the potential to provide a theoretical framework to aid an understanding of human mobility and its impacts on ecosystems. In turn, big data on human movement can be explored in the context of animal movement ecology to provide solutions for urgent conservation problems and management challenges.
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC), University of Western Australia (M470), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
Mark G
MG
Meekan
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Carlos M
CM
Duarte
Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Juan
J
Fernández-Gracia
Australian Institute of Marine Science, Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre (IOMRC), University of Western Australia (M470), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: m.thums@aims.gov.au.
Michele
M
Thums
IOMRC and UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, School of Animal Biology, M470, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
Ana M M
AMM
Sequeira
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia.
Rob
R
Harcourt
Instituto de Física Interdisciplinar y Sistemas Complejos IFISC (CSIC-UIB), E07122 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Víctor M
VM
Eguíluz
D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D058872:Epidemics; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D014186:Transportation