transtime {activity}R Documentation

Transforms clock time to solar times.

Description

Transforms time expressed relative to either the time of a single solar event (anchor times - Nouvellet et al. 2012), or two solar events (such as sun rise and sun set - Vazquez et al. in press).

Usage

transtime(
  dat,
  anchor,
  mnanchor = NULL,
  type = c("average", "equinoctial", "single")
)

Arguments

dat

A vector of radian event clock times.

anchor

A vector or matrix matched with dat containing radian anchor times on the day of each event (see Details).

mnanchor

A scalar or two-element vector of numeric radian mean anchor times (see Details).

type

The type of transformation to use (see Details).

Details

If double anchoring is requested (i.e. type is equinoctial or average), the anchor argument requires a two-column matrix, otherwise a vector. The argument mnanchor can usually be left at its default NULL value. In this case, the mean anchors are set to c(pi/2, pi*3/2) when type=="equinoctial", otherwise the anchor mean(s).

Although the anchors for transformation are usually likely to be solar events (e.g. sun rise and/or sunset), they could be other celestial (e.g. lunar) or human-related (e.g. timing of artificial lighting) events.

Value

A vector of radian transformed times.

References

Vazquez, C., Rowcliffe, J.M., Spoelstra, K. and Jansen, P.A. in press. Comparing diel activity patterns of wildlife across latitudes and seasons: time transformation using day length. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Nouvellet, P., Rasmussen, G.S.A., Macdonald, D.W. and Courchamp, F. 2012. Noisy clocks and silent sunrises: measurement methods of daily activity pattern. Journal of Zoology 286: 179-184.

Examples

data(BCItime)
subdat <- subset(BCItime, species=="ocelot")
suntimes <- pi/12 * get_suntimes(subdat$date, 9.156335, -79.847682, -5)[, -3]
rawtimes <- subdat$time*2*pi
avgtimes <- transtime(rawtimes, suntimes)
eqntimes <- transtime(rawtimes, suntimes, type="equinoctial")
sngtimes <- transtime(rawtimes, suntimes[,1], type="single")
rawAct <- fitact(rawtimes)
avgAct <- fitact(avgtimes)
eqnAct <- fitact(eqntimes)
sngAct <- fitact(sngtimes)
plot(rawAct)
plot(avgAct, add=TRUE, data="n", tline=list(col="magenta"))
plot(eqnAct, add=TRUE, data="n", tline=list(col="orange"))
plot(sngAct, add=TRUE, data="n", tline=list(col="cyan"))

[Package activity version 1.3.4 Index]