The use of acoustic indices to determine avian species richness in audio-recordings of the environment

Towsey, Michael; Wimmer, Jason; Williamson, Ian; Roe, Paul

doi:10.1016/j.ecoinf.2013.11.007

Cited by 257 publications

(196 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…These studies can be classified into 2 types. The first type is focused on biodiversity assessment, examining whether the acoustic diversity of a recording can reveal biodiversity facets of the recorded bird community such as species richness (Pieretti et al 2011, Depraetere et al 2012, Lellouch et al 2014, Towsey et al 2014a, functional diversity, and phylogenetic diversity (Gasc et al 2013a). The results of these works clearly demonstrated that acoustic indices of overall variation in soundscapes composed of bird sounds can contain information reflecting the diversity and activity patterns of avian communities.…”

Section: Principles Of Soundscape Ecology Related To Avian Ecology Ementioning

confidence: 93%

Comparisons Between Autonomous Acoustic Recordings and Avian Point Counts in Open Woodland Savanna

Alquezar¹,

Machado²

2015

The Wilson Journal of Ornithology

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Section: Principles Of Soundscape Ecology Related To Avian Ecology Ementioning

confidence: 93%

Comparisons Between Autonomous Acoustic Recordings and Avian Point Counts in Open Woodland Savanna

Alquezar¹,

Machado²

2015

The Wilson Journal of Ornithology

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“…The acoustic complexity index , for example, was tested to detect shifts in songbird phenology and was an effective, though coarse metric to detect the arrival of migrating songbirds (Buxton et al 2016). Although these acoustic indices do not provide information about which species are present, studies have suggested that some indices may be useful in estimating diversity (Depraetere et al 2012), calling activity , Buxton et al 2016, and directing the selection of recordings to process (Towsey et al 2014). More rigorous testing and research on acoustic indices and their interpretation is needed, and avian studies can benefit and make important contributions to this research (Gasc et al 2017).…”

Section: Current and Future Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous recording units in avian ecological research: current use and future applications

Shonfield¹,

Bayne²

2017

ACE

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241

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ABSTRACT. Acoustic surveys are a widely used sampling tool in ecological research and monitoring. They are used to monitor populations and ecosystems and to study various aspects of animal behavior. Autonomous recording units (ARUs) can record sound in most environments and are increasingly used by researchers to conduct acoustic surveys for birds. In this review, we summarize the use of ARUs in avian ecological research and synthesize current knowledge of the benefits and drawbacks of this technology. ARUs enable researchers to do more repeat visits with less time spent in the field, with the added benefits of a permanent record of the data collected and reduced observer bias. They are useful in remote locations and for targeting rare species. ARUs are mostly comparable to human observers in terms of species richness, but in some cases, they detect fewer species and at shorter distances. Drawbacks of ARUs include the cost of equipment, storage of recordings, loss of data if units fail, and potential sampling trade-offs in spatial vs. temporal coverage. ARUs generate large data sets of audio recordings, but advances in automated species recognition and acoustic processing techniques are contributing to make the processing time manageable. Future applications of ARUs include biodiversity monitoring and studying habitat use, animal movement, and various behavioral ecology questions based on vocalization activity. ARUs have the potential to make significant advances in avian ecological research and to be used in more innovative ways than simply as a substitute for a human observer in the field. Unités d'enregistrement autonomes en écologie aviaire : utilisations actuelles et futuresRÉSUMÉ. Les relevés acoustiques sont largement employés comme outil d'échantillonnage pour la recherche et les suivis écologiques. Ils sont utilisés pour suivre les populations et les écosystèmes et étudier le comportement animal sous divers angles. Les unités d'enregistrement autonomes (ARU, pour autonomus recording units) peuvent enregistrer les sons dans la plupart des environnements et sont utilisés de plus en plus souvent par les chercheurs pour effectuer des relevés acoustiques d'oiseaux. Dans la présente revue, nous résumons l'utilisation d'ARU en écologie aviaire et synthétisons les avantages et désavantages connus de cette technologie. Les ARU permettent aux chercheurs de faire plus de visites répétées tout en passant moins de temps sur le terrain, avec l'avantage d'avoir un enregistrement permanent des données récoltées et de réduire le biais associé à l'observateur. Ils sont utiles en milieu éloigné et dans les cas où on cible des espèces rares. Les ARU sont comparables aux observateurs humains pour ce qui est de la richesse spécifique, mais dans certains cas, ils détectent moins d'espèces et à des distances plus courtes. Les désavantages des ARU comprennent le coût de l'équipement, la sauvegarde des enregistrements, la perte de données en cas de défaillance des unités, et le compromis possible à devoir faire sur le plan de la...

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“…The term soundscape here is defined as the ''physical extent of acoustic signals and the spectral range of signal frequencies associated with an ecosystem's biophysical processes'' following Qi et al (2008). Acoustics of animal communities can reflect their diversity, composition and dynamics and be indicative of environmental trends Lellouch et al 2014;Towsey et al 2014). Several studies have linked the acoustic profile of animal communities with habitat characteristics and/or human disturbances (Sueur et al 2008;Joo et al 2011;Tucker et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cricket calling communities as an indicator of the invasive ant Wasmannia auropunctata in an insular biodiversity hotspot

et al. 2017

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Invasive species are a major concern for the maintenance of ecosystem services and biodiversity but are difficult to mitigate. Upstream solutions to prevent their impact, including their detection, are needed. Wasmannia auropunctata, an invasive ant living in vagile supercolonies, is especially hard to track and is a major threat for tropical ecosystems and local animal communities. As part of such tropical communities, crickets are sensitive to ecological conditions, easy to collect, detectable and identifiable through their species-specific calls. Here, we evaluated the use of an acoustic community of crickets as an indicator of the presence of W. auropunctata in New Caledonia. We evaluated the dominance of the crickets in the soundscape, describe the cricket community structure and diversity along a shrubland to forest gradient, characterize these cricket communities structure and diversity in the light of ongoing invasion by W. auropunctata, and identify cricket species' indicators of the invasion. Acoustic recordings collected on 24 sites were described using humanlistening and spectrographic visualization. The results demonstrated a clear dominance of the cricket group in the New Caledonian nocturnal soundscapes. Each habitat harbored a specific acoustic cricket community related to specific environmental attributes including vegetation height, daily variation of humidity and temperature. The presence of W. auropunctata was significantly associated with a lower cricket acoustic activity and species richness at night. Of the 19 species detected, four nocturnal species were identified as indicator of non-invaded forests and preforests. This work supports the use of acoustic as an alternative method to detect invasion.

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The use of acoustic indices to determine avian species richness in audio-recordings of the environment

Cited by 257 publications

References 24 publications

Comparisons Between Autonomous Acoustic Recordings and Avian Point Counts in Open Woodland Savanna

Comparisons Between Autonomous Acoustic Recordings and Avian Point Counts in Open Woodland Savanna

Autonomous recording units in avian ecological research: current use and future applications

Cricket calling communities as an indicator of the invasive ant Wasmannia auropunctata in an insular biodiversity hotspot

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