Monitoring Marine Biodiversity through Soundscape Analysis
Conference Year
January 2019
Abstract
Passive acoustic monitoring provides an effective way to monitor biodiversity and examine human-related changes to specific ecosystems. Growing evidence indicates that habitat complexity is related to the complexity of the biophonical component of its soundscape, providing an accurate depiction of animal communities. Here we study the temporal variation of three marine communities in the Biological Reserve of Isla del Cano, Costa Rica, using long-term underwater recorders and soundscape analysis. Overall our results indicate that the most ecologically complex site (Diablo) exhibited the highest acoustic biodiversity (ACI:167-200), follow by the intermediate complex site (Tiburon; ACI) and the low complex site (Jardin; ACI). We found that there is daily and temporal variation within and between sites. The acoustic use plots show that in the three sites the most used frequency bands are betweennight, likely associated to fish acoustic activity. Our results are consistent with previous research and show the value of long-term acoustic monitoring in understanding marine community structure and biodiversity.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Laura May-Collado
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Zoology
Primary Research Category
Biological Sciences
Monitoring Marine Biodiversity through Soundscape Analysis
Passive acoustic monitoring provides an effective way to monitor biodiversity and examine human-related changes to specific ecosystems. Growing evidence indicates that habitat complexity is related to the complexity of the biophonical component of its soundscape, providing an accurate depiction of animal communities. Here we study the temporal variation of three marine communities in the Biological Reserve of Isla del Cano, Costa Rica, using long-term underwater recorders and soundscape analysis. Overall our results indicate that the most ecologically complex site (Diablo) exhibited the highest acoustic biodiversity (ACI:167-200), follow by the intermediate complex site (Tiburon; ACI) and the low complex site (Jardin; ACI). We found that there is daily and temporal variation within and between sites. The acoustic use plots show that in the three sites the most used frequency bands are betweennight, likely associated to fish acoustic activity. Our results are consistent with previous research and show the value of long-term acoustic monitoring in understanding marine community structure and biodiversity.