Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.

Surveying terrestrial species across diverse habitats is important for predicting species' distributions and implementing conservation actions. For vocalising species, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is increasing in popularity; however, survey design rarely considers the factors influencing...

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Main Authors: Stiele V Hagens, Anthony R Rendall, Desley A Whisson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6051584?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-0362b7f8373c47768ead0e5d5f5789cc2020-11-24T21:55:53ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-01137e019939610.1371/journal.pone.0199396Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.Stiele V HagensAnthony R RendallDesley A WhissonSurveying terrestrial species across diverse habitats is important for predicting species' distributions and implementing conservation actions. For vocalising species, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is increasing in popularity; however, survey design rarely considers the factors influencing the timing and occurrence of vocalisations and in turn, how they may influence detectability of the species. Here, we use the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) as a case study to show how PAM can be used to first examine the factors influencing vocalisations, and then use occupancy modelling to make recommendations on survey design for the species. We used automated recording units to monitor koala vocalisations at ten sites between August 2016 and January 2017. The timing of male koala vocalisations was linked to time of sunset with vocalisations increasing two hours prior to sunset and peaking at four hours after sunset. Vocalisations had a seasonal trend, increasing from the early to middle stage of the breeding season. Koala population density and stage of the breeding season had more influence on detection probability than daily sampling schedule. Where population density was low, and during the early stage of the breeding season, 7 survey nights (recording for 6 hours from 20:00h to 02:00h; i.e. the period of peak bellowing activity) were required to be 95% confident of a site-specific absence. Our study provides an approach for designing effective passive acoustic surveys for terrestrial species.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6051584?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Stiele V Hagens
Anthony R Rendall
Desley A Whisson
spellingShingle Stiele V Hagens
Anthony R Rendall
Desley A Whisson
Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Stiele V Hagens
Anthony R Rendall
Desley A Whisson
author_sort Stiele V Hagens
title Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.
title_short Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.
title_full Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.
title_fullStr Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.
title_full_unstemmed Passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: Optimising detection probability.
title_sort passive acoustic surveys for predicting species' distributions: optimising detection probability.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2018-01-01
description Surveying terrestrial species across diverse habitats is important for predicting species' distributions and implementing conservation actions. For vocalising species, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is increasing in popularity; however, survey design rarely considers the factors influencing the timing and occurrence of vocalisations and in turn, how they may influence detectability of the species. Here, we use the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) as a case study to show how PAM can be used to first examine the factors influencing vocalisations, and then use occupancy modelling to make recommendations on survey design for the species. We used automated recording units to monitor koala vocalisations at ten sites between August 2016 and January 2017. The timing of male koala vocalisations was linked to time of sunset with vocalisations increasing two hours prior to sunset and peaking at four hours after sunset. Vocalisations had a seasonal trend, increasing from the early to middle stage of the breeding season. Koala population density and stage of the breeding season had more influence on detection probability than daily sampling schedule. Where population density was low, and during the early stage of the breeding season, 7 survey nights (recording for 6 hours from 20:00h to 02:00h; i.e. the period of peak bellowing activity) were required to be 95% confident of a site-specific absence. Our study provides an approach for designing effective passive acoustic surveys for terrestrial species.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6051584?pdf=render
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AT desleyawhisson passiveacousticsurveysforpredictingspeciesdistributionsoptimisingdetectionprobability
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