Passive acoustic monitoring in ecology and conservation.

Abstract

are urgently needed to understand how global change is affecting wildlife and ecosystems. Sound is an important component of any habitat, and sound recordings made in the field offer potentially rich sources of ecological information about the abundance, distribution and behaviour of vocalising animals in an area. Acoustic sensors are therefore becoming widely used in ecology and conservation settings to monitor animal populations, behaviour, and responses to environmental change. In recent years the burgeoning field of ecoacoustics has also begun providing insights into acoustic community dynamics at larger scales. With technological improvements making sophisticated off-the-shelf bioacoustic sensors increasingly affordable, it is an exciting and fast-moving time for acoustic wildlife monitoring. Research in this field is now addressing fundamental questions in ecology and animal behaviour, but is also becoming increasingly useful in applied conservation settings, such as monitoring populations of endangered or data-deficient species, or monitoring illegal activities in high-risk areas. However, despite this rapid growth in potential uses, there remains a lack of best-practice guidelines for researchers wishing to deploy acoustic sensors in the field to address particular questions. This guide seeks to address this gap, by providing an introduction to acoustic monitoring technology and its current and emerging uses in ecology and conservation, alongside clear guidelines for acoustic sensor deployment, survey design and data analysis.