Abstract
We developed a spatially explicit community occupancy model based on Markov random fields that accounts for spatial auto-correlation and interspecific interactions in occupancy while also accounting for interspecific interaction in detection. Simulation showed the model can distinguish different mechanisms of environmental sorting competition and spatial-autocorrelation. We applied our model to camera trap data from a Fisher(Pekania pennanti)-Marten(Martes americana) and Coyote(Canis latrans)-Fox(Vulpes vulpes) system in Apostle Island National Lakeshore. Results showed the observed partitioning pattern between marten and fisher distributions could be better explained by a flipped mainland-island source-sink pattern rather than competition, while we detected some evidence that on top of the mainland-island source-sink pattern, there was a positive association between fox and coyote that deserved further study.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Section on contribution evaluation updated to clarify Y; New figure on the underlying graph