Monitoring animal movement diversity as a component of biodiversity

Animal movement is increasingly being quantified in novel ways, with high potential for integration into broad‐scale efforts to monitor biological diversity. Here, we define movement diversity as a form of biodiversity, measuring variation in animal movement from the level of individual animals to communities. We present a framework to develop a common language for movement diversity metrics, which describes variation in movement patterns, as well as motion and navigation capacities, through both time and geographic space. Developing and using a common language for such metrics will lay the foundation for expanding the application of animal movement data in biodiversity monitoring to address not only the effects of global climate and land‐use change on movement diversity but also how movement diversity influences ecosystem functioning.

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Publication Details

Journal
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Published
2026-03-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.70038
Primary Topic
Species Distribution and Climate Change
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Monitoring animal movement diversity as a component of biodiversity

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Species Distribution and Climate Change
article

Monitoring animal movement diversity as a component of biodiversity

article en

Abstract

Animal movement is increasingly being quantified in novel ways, with high potential for integration into broad‐scale efforts to monitor biological diversity. Here, we define movement diversity as a form of biodiversity, measuring variation in animal movement from the level of individual animals to communities. We present a framework to develop a common language for movement diversity metrics, which describes variation in movement patterns, as well as motion and navigation capacities, through both time and geographic space. Developing and using a common language for such metrics will lay the foundation for expanding the application of animal movement data in biodiversity monitoring to address not only the effects of global climate and land‐use change on movement diversity but also how movement diversity influences ecosystem functioning.

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Harvard University (US), University of California, Los Angeles (US), Sustainability Institute (ZA), The University of Texas at Austin (US), University of California, Berkeley (US), California State Polytechnic University (US)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 25%
Species Distribution and Climate Change
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