Nonparametric point processes inference to characterize the distribution of cetacean in European Atlantic waters

I. Fuentes Santos, W. González Manteiga, J. Mateu Mahiques

This work aims to analyze the behavior of cetacean (whale, dolphin, and harvour porpoise) in European Atlantic waters using sighting data collected by the Joint Cetacean Data Programme (JCDP) and seawater properties from the Copernicus Marine Service. Cetacean sighing locations can be treated as realizations of spatial point processes (SPP) which distribution may depend on spatial covariates, such as seawater temperature. We estimate and compare the spatial distribution of the different species using recently developed nonparametric estimators and tests for the intensity and pair correlation function of inhomogeneous SPP. In particular, we propose a no-effect test for the kernel intensity estimator based on covariates. Finally, given that the observation domain comprises a large region of the geosphere, we check the convenience of treating these data as point processes on the sphere taking advantage of recent advances in nonparametric inference techniques for the hypersphere.

Keywords: inhomogeneous point processes, kernel estimators, nonparametric tests, spherical point processes.

Spatio-Temporal Statistics II
June 12, 2025  11:30 AM
MR 3

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