Vegetation structure and temporality influence the dominance, diversity, and composition of forest acoustic communities

Hao, Zezhou; Wang, Cheng; Sun, Zhongchang; Zhao, Dexian; Sun, Baoqiang; Wang, Haijun; Bosch, Cecil Konijnendijk van den

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118871

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…In our results, we compare three forests, an autochthonous deciduous forest, with two replanted pine tree forests at 200 m higher altitudes, showing that acoustic biodiversity and intensity were higher in the deciduous forest, the Herrería Forest. This result agrees with previous studies showing how higher canopy covers and tree heights, summed to forest maturity can positively affect the biophony (Figueira et al 2015; Hao et al 2021). This higher ‘health’ of Herrería Forest compared to the other locations was consistently observed in 2020 and 2021, but furthermore, this ‘health’ reached the highest values in 2020.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

A tale of two springs: contrasting forest soundscapes during the COVID-19 lockdown (2020) and after the record snowstorm Filomena (2021) from Central Spain

Ortiz-Álvarez,

Leiva-Dueñas

2023

Preprint

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity temporarily retired from the outdoors. The strict lockdown measures in Spain coincided with the onset of the nesting season of birds, thriving in an unusually quiet environment. Here, we have recorded in forests near San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Central Spain) during the lockdown period in 2020, and the closer to normal spring in 2021. We found strong differences in soundscapes by recording year and location, regardless of the effects of meteorology and human mobility. Species altered their behaviour by increasing their calling intensity during 2021 to cope with higher noise levels, however, acoustic activity was generally less diverse and complex. The difference between years was particularly detrimental for the highest-pitched biophony in 2021. We interpret that an extreme snowfall, Filomena, may have caused a mortality event with lasting effects in the community during the 2021 spring. Since extreme climatic events are likely going to keep happening in the area due to climate change, our data is a useful baseline to guide future conservation efforts, and examine how our activity and climate change are changing the soundscapes of Spanish Mediterranean forests.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

A tale of two springs: contrasting forest soundscapes during the COVID-19 lockdown (2020) and after the record snowstorm Filomena (2021) from Central Spain

Ortiz-Álvarez,

Leiva-Dueñas

2023

Preprint

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“…In summer, a quiet but present dawn chorus occurred only in the intact vegetation. Such result suggest that the increased heat of the summer highlighted the vulnerabilities of the burned area, possibly impeding shelter of sonoriferous species due to the lack of canopy since canopy structure can drive differences in faunal behavior 41,42 . Despite this vulnerability, at night, populations of crickets and cicadas, singing at high frequencies ( Figure 5A) , matched the dynamics of the intact area, highlighting the presence of active insect populations.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological assembly of natural soundscapes in the Garajonay National Park (Spain)

Ortiz‐Álvarez

García-Puig

Garate

2022

Preprint

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Natural sound contains data about the ecology of animal populations, communities, and the full ecosystem, resulting from a complex evolution and varying according to the environment. Amongst the processes that are hypothesized to explain sound assemblages, or soundscapes, one is the acoustic niche hypothesis: sounds produced by species calling at the same time seek avoid overlapping, leading to an acoustic differentiation of signals. Soundscapes are more complex in the most pristine environments and show responses to habitat degradation and physical perturbations; hence here, we focus on La Gomera, in the Canary Islands (Spain). This island is the only location in Europe where primary cloud forests are well preserved and thrive on an island with varied orography, microclimates, disturbances, and vegetation types. In this article, we adapted a method to quantify the importance of acoustic niche partitioning and also the opposite process: acoustic aggregation. To do so, we explored soundscapes at different temporal scales in forests with variable degrees of perturbation and maturity. A secondary goal of this report is to compare how soundscapes could differ in an area affected by a wildfire, and undisturbed equivalents, in summer in winter, seasons with contrasting temperatures and wind regimes. We conclude that tracking faunal activity and behavior through soundscape monitoring could be a piece of useful complementary information to guide conservation decisions and future restoration efforts in the Garajonay National Park (La Gomera). HIGHLIGHTS: The mature forest and the transitional forest are similar in terms of sound levels, frequencies, and dynamics, although the transitional forest had higher sound levels of the lower frequencies (higher NDSI). The mature forest has stronger and more active assembly mechanisms (i.e., acoustic aggregation and acoustic niche partitioning) and a higher acoustic diversity index (ADI) than the transitional forest. Assembly organizes differently in both locations. In both the mature and the transitional forests, we found an inverse relationship between the ADI and acoustic niche partitioning. At the highest diversities (more frequency bands occupied), the weakest is the temporal avoidance of calls with similar frequencies. The vulnerability of the burned location is highest during the harsh summer, but in winter, it hosts a community very similar to the intact vegetation in terms of ADI and sound levels.

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“…This result suggests that the sampled environments have different sources of biophony and anthropophony. This may happen because Sobradinho (SO) and Plano Piloto (PP) are more arborized showing greater biophony (Hao, Wang, Sun, van den Bosch, et al, 2021; Hao, Wang, Sun, Zhao, et al, 2021). Another alternative is that structures that make up the environment reduce anthropophony and are less prone to noise, indicating that vegetation acts as a barrier to the propagation of sounds (Margaritis et al, 2018; Ow & Ghosh, 2017; Watts et al, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic communities in an environmental gradient from native to urban areas in Central Brazil

Araujo,

Machado

2023

Austral Ecology

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As urban areas expand due to increasing human populations, natural habitats are diminishing in quantity and quality. We conducted a study to examine the response of diurnal acoustic communities along a gradient of environments, ranging from native to dense urban areas. We hypothesized that acoustic indices would decline with urbanization, transitioning from natural and rural areas to urban environments. We conducted the research in and around Brasília, Central Brazil. We deployed 24 digital recorders in native, rural, low‐density and high‐density urban areas. We employed five commonly used acoustic indices (ADI, ACI, NDSI, H and BI) to characterize the acoustic communities and represent the existing biodiversity numerically. We initially compared the index values across different land use types using a non‐parametric rank sum test. Subsequently, we selected eight landscape metrics and performed a principal component analysis to summarize the surrounding matrix at each sampling point. We then employed generalized linear models to determine if the acoustic indices exhibited the anticipated variations. The results indicated significant variations in all indices among the different land use types, indicating their responsiveness to distinct acoustic communities and environmental characteristics. ADI, H and NDSI exhibited declining values from native to urban areas, while ACI and BI displayed the opposite trend. These findings underscore the influence of landscape structure on acoustic indices. Consequently, we concluded that adopting appropriate landscape planning, mainly through integrating natural and urban areas, could help preserve biodiversity in tropical urban regions.

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Vegetation structure and temporality influence the dominance, diversity, and composition of forest acoustic communities

Cited by 20 publications

References 104 publications

A tale of two springs: contrasting forest soundscapes during the COVID-19 lockdown (2020) and after the record snowstorm Filomena (2021) from Central Spain

A tale of two springs: contrasting forest soundscapes during the COVID-19 lockdown (2020) and after the record snowstorm Filomena (2021) from Central Spain

Ecological assembly of natural soundscapes in the Garajonay National Park (Spain)

Acoustic communities in an environmental gradient from native to urban areas in Central Brazil

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