I am trying to account for repeated measures in ecological data. The data are counts on exit times and numbers of individual bats leaving from roost locations over multiple years. Roosts were counted a varying number of times in different years, and also compared to other roosts. Roost is being used as a random variable. Here is an example of one of my models:
model1 <- lmer(min.after.sundn~distance.edge+repro.period+emerge.total+moon.phase+cloud.cover+moon.phase:cloud.cover+(1|tree), data=airport,REML=TRUE)
Explanation of variables:
min.after.sundn = continuous whole number measure of the number of minutes after sundown the first bat left the roost
distance.edge = continuous measure of distance
repro.period = categorical variable with 5 levels
emerge.total = continuous whole numbers
moon.phase = continuous fraction (0-1)
cloud cover = categorical with 5 levels
tree = roost locations that were monitored, dummy coded as numbers
My question is: Does the (1|tree) account for the repeated measures on its own? Or is there something ELSE I need to change?
I am in the process of dummy coding the different years of measures into the tree number so that tree counts in different years are not treated as repeated measures, which makes ecological sense since the dynamics of the population in a particular tree may change from year to year.
Any suggestions?