Accelerometer tags: detecting and identifying activities in fish and the effect of sampling frequency

SummaryMonitoring and measuring the behaviour and movement of aquatic animals in the wild is typically challenging, though micro-accelerometer (archival or telemetry) tags now provide the means to remotely identify and quantify behavioural states and rates such as resting, swimming, and migrating, and to estimate activity and energy budgets. Most studies use low frequency (≤32 Hz) accelerometer sampling due to battery and data-archiving constraints. In this study we assessed the effect of sampling frequency (aliasing) on activity detection probability using the great sculpin (Myoxocephalus polyacanthoceaphalus) as a model species. Feeding strikes and escape responses (fast-start activities) and spontaneous movements among 7 different great sculpin were triggered, observed and recorded using a tri-axial accelerometer sampling at 100 Hz and video records. We demonstrate that multiple parameters in the time and probability domains can statistically differentiate between activities with high detection (90%) and identification (80%) probabilities. Detection probability for feeding and escape activities decreased by 50% when sampling at <10 Hz. Our analyses illustrate additional problems associated with aliasing and how activity and energy-budget estimates can be compromised and misinterpreted. We recommend that high-frequency (>30 Hz) accelerometer sampling be used in similar lab and field studies. If battery and (or) data storage is limited, we also recommend archiving the events via an on-board algorithm that determines the highest likelihood and subsequent archiving of the various event-classes of interest.