Acoustic species distribution models (aSDMs): A framework to forecast shifts in calling behaviour under climate change

Abstract

1. Species distribution models (SDMs) are a key tool for biogeography and climate change research, although current approaches have some significant drawbacks.The use of species occurrence constrains predictions of correlative models, while there is a general lack of eco-physiological data to develop mechanistic models.Passive acoustic monitoring is an emerging technique in ecology that may help to overcome these limitations. By remotely tracking animal behaviour across species geographical ranges, researchers can estimate the climatic breadth of species activity and provide a baseline for refined predictive models. However, such integrative approach still remains to be developed.2. Here, we propose the following: (a) a general and transferable method to build acoustic SDMs, a novel tool combining acoustic and biogeographical information, (b) a detailed comparison with standard correlative and mechanistic models, (c) a step-by-step guide to develop aSDMs and (d) a study case to assess their effectiveness and illustrate model outputs, using a year-round monitoring of calling behaviour of the Iberian tree frog at the thermal extremes of its distribution range. This method aims at forecasting changes in environmental suitability for acoustic communication, a key and climate-dependent behaviour for a wide variety of animal taxa.3. aSDMs identified strong associations between calling behaviour and local environmental conditions and showed robust and consistent predictive performance using two alternative models (regression and boundary). Furthermore, these models better captured climatic variation than correlative models as they use observations at higher temporal resolution. These results support aSDMs as efficient tools to model calling behaviour under future climate scenarios.

The potential of acoustic monitoring of aquatic insects for freshwater assessment

“…Indeed sound production is associated with critical behaviours (including mating, breeding, defence against predators and territoriality). Thus monitoring the acoustic activity of these insects will yield valuable ecological insight and could help build acoustic species distribution models [108] based on available global freshwater maps [109]. This would be particularly valuable for invasive or threatened species.…”

Parasitoid pressures and silence evolution

“…Further, the model can be expanded and developed to understand the effects of parasitism on host sex ratios [57]. The model could also be further developed to understand the evolution of multi-component auditory signals, anthropogenic effects, and specifically to climate change acoustic behaviour distributions [58–60]. Changes in the environment can cause significant changes in the reproductive incentive of signalers [40, 61, 62].…”

Passive acoustic monitoring provides a fresh perspective on fundamental ecological questions

“…Continuous data at high temporal resolution and from multiple species are thus vital for understanding climate change impacts on species phenology, distribution and interactions. With relatively low effort, PAM data can fill this niche (Desjonquères et al, 2022).…”

“…High‐resolution acoustic data offer the opportunity for biodiversity monitoring across temporal scales, and the possibility to study fine‐scale temporal species dynamics at higher resolution than previously possible (e.g. Desjonquères et al, 2022). As well as capturing the dynamics of individual species, the biotic component of the soundscape is composed of multiple vocalising taxa, spanning trophic levels and taxonomic groups, and thus soundscapes can be analysed as a signal of the whole (vocalising) community in a way that few other monitoring methods currently allow.…”