Traditionally, animal species diversity and abundance is assessed using a variety of methods that are generally costly, limited in space and time, and most importantly, they rarely include a permanent record. Given the urgency of climate change and the loss of habitat, it is vital that we use new technologies to improve and expand global biodiversity monitoring to thousands of sites around the world. In this article, we describe the acoustical component of the Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network (ARBIMON), a novel combination of hardware and software for automating data acquisition, data management, and species identification based on audio recordings. The major components of the cyberinfrastructure include: a solar powered remote monitoring station that sends 1-min recordings every 10 min to a base station, which relays the recordings in real-time to the project server, where the recordings are processed and uploaded to the project website (). Along with a module for viewing, listening, and annotating recordings, the website includes a species identification interface to help users create machine learning algorithms to automate species identification. To demonstrate the system we present data on the vocal activity patterns of birds, frogs, insects, and mammals from Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.

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Abstract. Long-term monitoring of frog populations is needed to understand the effects of global change. To better understand the relationships between climate variation and calling activity, we monitored an anuran assemblage in a Puerto Rican wetland by sampling the acoustic environment for one minute every 10 minutes, for 41 months. By automating data collection using passive acoustic monitoring hardware, we collected more than 110,000 recordings. These recordings were analyzed using speciesspecific identification algorithms of four Eleutherodactylus species. The peak calling activity of E. coqui (.0.3 detection frequency) and E. cochranae (.0.2) occurred between April and September, and there was a clear decline in activity during the dry months of January-March. There was no clear annual pattern in E. brittoni or E. juanariveroi, but E. juanariveroi did show a significant decline in calling activity over the 41-month study (;0.5 to ;0.35). Calling activity of E. coqui and E. cochranae was positively correlated with temperature, while E. brittoni and E. juanariveroi responded negatively to temperature and precipitation. This difference in response to temperature and precipitation could be related to differences in body size and the location of calling sites among the four species. For example, E. brittoni and E. juanariveroi are small species that call from the tips of the vegetation. High temperatures and intense precipitation may cause them to retreat into the vegetation, and reduce calling activity. In contrast, E. coqui and E. cochranae call lower in the vegetation and from leaf axils where they are more protected. Based on these findings, future scenarios of climate change could pose a threat for the survival of the populations of these four species. New climate regimes could negatively affect the calling activity, and thus diminish reproductive events.

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