Comparison of point counts and automated acoustic monitoring: detecting birds in a rainforest biodiversity survey

Abstract To monitor assemblages of animals, ecologists need effective methods for detecting and recording the distributions of species within target areas in restricted periods of time. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of a traditional avian biodiversity assessment technique (point counts) with a relatively new method (automated acoustic recordings) along an elevational gradient in rainforest in central Queensland, Australia. On average, point counts detected more species than acoustic recordings of an equivalent length of time (n = 40, P = <0.001). We suggest these results are driven by the visual detection of additional species during point counts. Despite the fact that point counts detected more species than acoustic recordings, datasets generated by both methods showed similar patterns in the community response to change in elevation. There was significant overlap in the species detected using both methods, but each detected several unique species. Consequently, we recommend the use of both techniques in tandem for future biodiversity assessments, as their respective strengths and weaknesses are complementary.

[1]  K. Hobson,et al.  Acoustic surveys of birds using electronic recordings: new potential from an omnidirectional microphone system , 2002 .

[2]  James S. Quinn,et al.  A COMPARISON OF POINT COUNTS AND SOUND RECORDING AS BIRD SURVEY METHODS IN AMAZONIAN SOUTHEAST PERU , 2000 .

[3]  D. Hořák,et al.  A comparison of point counts with a new acoustic sampling method: a case study of a bird community from the montane forests of Mount Cameroon§ , 2015 .

[4]  Jinhai Cai,et al.  Sensor Network for the Monitoring of Ecosystem: Bird Species Recognition , 2007, 2007 3rd International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information.

[5]  Robert W. Russell,et al.  Monitoring flight calls of migrating birds from an oil platform in the northern Gulf of Mexico , 2007 .

[6]  Keith A. Hobson,et al.  Bioacoustic monitoring of forest songbirds: interpreter variability and effects of configuration and digital processing methods in the laboratory , 2005 .

[7]  M. Willig,et al.  Bird biodiversity assessments in temperate forest: the value of point count versus acoustic monitoring protocols , 2015, PeerJ.

[8]  S. Williams,et al.  Current Analogues of Future Climate Indicate the Likely Response of a Sensitive Montane Tropical Avifauna to a Warming World , 2013, PloS one.

[9]  David R. Wilson,et al.  Field test of an affordable, portable, wireless microphone array for spatial monitoring of animal ecology and behaviour , 2012 .

[10]  Nicolas Mathevon,et al.  Individual acoustic monitoring of the European Eagle Owl Bubo bubo , 2007 .

[11]  Paola Laiolo,et al.  The emerging significance of bioacoustics in animal species conservation , 2010 .

[12]  S. Schneider,et al.  Climate Change, Elevational Range Shifts, and Bird Extinctions , 2008, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[13]  George Holborn,et al.  Evaluation of an automated recording device for monitoring forest birds , 2012 .

[14]  S. Garnett,et al.  Climate Change Adaptation Plan for Australian Birds , 2014 .

[15]  J. Tracey.  The Vegetation of the Humid Tropical Region of North Queensland. , 1983 .

[16]  Mark J. Whittingham,et al.  The Use of Automated Bioacoustic Recorders to Replace Human Wildlife Surveys: An Example Using Nightjars , 2014, PloS one.

[17]  Héctor Corrada Bravo,et al.  Automated classification of bird and amphibian calls using machine learning: A comparison of methods , 2009, Ecol. Informatics.

[18]  Robert W. Howe,et al.  Detecting tropical nocturnal birds using automated audio recordings , 2011 .

[19]  Charles M. Francis,et al.  Comparison of audio recording system performance for detecting and monitoring songbirds , 2013 .

[20]  Michael Towsey,et al.  A practical comparison of manual and autonomous methods for acoustic monitoring , 2013 .

[21]  D. Mennill.  Individual distinctiveness in avian vocalizations and the spatial monitoring of behaviour , 2011 .

[22]  Michael P. Ward,et al.  Effectiveness and utility of acoustic recordings for surveying tropical birds , 2012 .

[23]  S. Boulter,et al.  Detecting biodiversity changes along climatic gradients: the IBISCA-Queensland Project , 2011 .

[24]  L. Venier,et al.  Using automated sound recording and analysis to detect bird species‐at‐risk in southwestern Ontario woodlands , 2014 .

[25]  Rachel T. Buxton,et al.  Measuring nocturnal seabird activity and status using acoustic recording devices: applications for island restoration , 2012 .

[26]  Len Thomas,et al.  Passive Acoustic Monitoring for Estimating Animal Density , 2012 .

[27]  Jill L. Deppe,et al.  Using soundscape recordings to estimate bird species abundance, richness, and composition , 2009 .

[28]  David Serrano,et al.  Testing acoustic versus physical marking: two complementary methods for individual‐based monitoring of elusive species , 2007 .

[29]  Paul Roe,et al.  Sampling environmental acoustic recordings to determine bird species richness. , 2013, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[30]  Joseph A. Tobias,et al.  Global patterns and predictors of bird species responses to forest fragmentation: Implications for ecosystem function and conservation , 2014 .

[31]  Daniel J. Mennill,et al.  Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Congruent Patterns of Territorial Singing Behaviour in Male and Female Tropical Wrens , 2011 .