Initial model exploration
Generalize additive models
Secor et al. (2025) provided a simple generalized additive model (GAM) evaluated in R (R Core Team 2026) for the analysis of marine fauna flyways. In the manuscript, the average latitude per individual, per week of a Hudson River population of striped bass Morone saxatilis, possibly the entire population of North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis, and several populations of northern gannet Morus bassanus were regressed against date. We reproduce that analysis here for an expanded data set of striped bass locations which includes Potomac and Delaware populations (“Initial striped bass GAM exploration”) as well as for tagged sand tiger sharks Carcharias taurus (“Initial striped bass GAM exploration”). An initial analysis of Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus is ongoing.
Functional data analysis
Flyway models can viewed as a form of functional data analysis (FDA, see Gertheiss et al. (2024) for a current review), where the observation unit is a “function” rather than a single point. In many ways, FDA can be viewed as a further generalization of generalized additive models. While we do not plan to pursue this further, an initial exploration is provided in the Functional Data Regression chapter.