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Common loon winter archival geolocator tag location data

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Breeding common loons were obtained for the movement and foraging pattern study from lakes in central and northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Both adults of a territorial pair were fitted with archival geolocator tags (Model LAT 2500; 34.6 x 8.3 mm, 4.4 g; Lotek Wireless Inc.). A combination of adhesive and plastic cable ties were used to affix the geolocator tag to a modified lock-on aluminum leg band. Tags were programmed to collect daily location estimates for up to two years, tag temperature (0.02 oC accuracy, ≤ 0.05 oC resolution) at 30-min intervals, and pressure data (±1% accuracy, 0.05% resolution) at 20-sec intervals during daylight hours to document foraging patterns (dive profiles) while on the Great Lakes during fall migration and on the wintering grounds. Data stored on geolocator tags were not transmitted, requiring that the marked loon be recaptured to recover the tag and download the data. The geolocator tags could store data for several years before the devices needed to be downloaded. Geolocator tag data collected over the previous year(s) were downloaded from tags using LAT Viewer Studio software (Lotek Wireless Inc.). Geolocator tag location estimates were based on light-based geolocations using the template-fitting approach (Exstrom, 2004), in combination with tag temperature (sea surface temperature) and pressure (dive depth) data. Template-fit error estimates were used to filter aberrant geolocation estimates. Sea surface temperature (derived from NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [MODIS] imagery) across North America inland lakes, Atlantic coastal waters, and the Gulf of Mexico, coupled with diving depth information were used to improve or obtain location estimates and timing of migration movements when light-based geolocation estimates were unreliable.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/e4fcd2ac5662f72f00764c1a41409ebb
Identifier USGS:63519fcbd34e47431c15dc55
Data Last Modified 20221028
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id ba0d6289-1389-4b29-b838-1cbd9dc495d1
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -180.0,-90.0,180.0,90.0
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 09a76b2f8b958d7323e21f9ac7b7e2d7f0e16b5bc61b75918cee345604981d8d
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0, -90.0, -180.0, 90.0, 180.0, 90.0, 180.0, -90.0, -180.0, -90.0}

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