The Comparison of Usage and Availability Measurements for Evaluating Resource Preference

TLDR

Modern ecological research often compares usage of habitat types or food items to their availability, and methods for determining preference depend on how researchers define available components. The paper proposes a new method that ranks components by usage and availability to assess resource preference. The method includes statistical significance tests and a hierarchical ordering of selection processes to structure preference analysis. The rank-based approach yields consistent results regardless of questionable components and resolves inconsistencies among selection studies, aligning with the proposed analytic technique.

Abstract

Modern ecological research often involves the comparison of the usage of habitat types or food items to the availability of those resources to the animal. Widely used methods of determining preference from measurements of usage and availability depend critically on the array of components that the researcher, often with a degree of arbitrariness, deems available to the animal. This paper proposes a new method, based on ranks of components by usage and by availability. A virtue of the rank procedure is that it provides comparable results whether a questionable component is included or excluded from consideration. Statistical tests of significance are given for the method. The paper also offers a hierarchical ordering of selection processes. This hierarchy resolves certain inconsistencies among studies of selection and is compatible with the analytic technique offered in this paper.