The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia
Human activities are accelerating biodiversity loss, necessitating tools capable of monitoring biodiversity patterns over large spatial and temporal scales. Passive acoustic monitoring methods, including acoustic indices, are emerging as a promising approach for surveying vocalizing animals. Numerou...
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Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Ecological Indicators |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25000342 |
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| author | Christos Mammides Pan Wuyuan Guohualing Huang Rachakonda Sreekar Christina Ieronymidou Aiwu Jiang Eben Goodale Harris Papadopoulos |
| author_facet | Christos Mammides Pan Wuyuan Guohualing Huang Rachakonda Sreekar Christina Ieronymidou Aiwu Jiang Eben Goodale Harris Papadopoulos |
| author_sort | Christos Mammides |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Human activities are accelerating biodiversity loss, necessitating tools capable of monitoring biodiversity patterns over large spatial and temporal scales. Passive acoustic monitoring methods, including acoustic indices, are emerging as a promising approach for surveying vocalizing animals. Numerous studies have assessed the effectiveness of acoustic indices in surveying animal communities, focusing mostly on birds and seven commonly used indices, yielding mixed results. Combining the indices has been proposed as a solution to produce more accurate predictions. In this study, we use data from 114 biodiverse sites in three countries, Cyprus, China, and Australia, to evaluate the combined effectiveness of sixty different acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness. Using the Boruta feature selection algorithm and random forest regressors, we find that the effectiveness of the indices varies considerably across study areas, and it is generally lower than what would be required to monitor bird species richness accurately (R2Cyprus = 0.06, R2China = 0.31, R2Australia = 0.52). Moreover, the most useful set of indices varied for each area; none of the sixty indices were useful in all three areas, and only three indices were useful in more than one area. Our findings, along with those of other recent studies, suggest that acoustic indices may not currently be an effective method for accurately monitoring bird species richness despite their utility in other applications, such as surveying broader biodiversity patterns. Moreover, we recommend that whenever researchers investigate the efficacy of acoustic indices, they consider all available indices to identify the most useful in their study region. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9eac92396beb49f3b310b1e39c4ebaa5 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1470-160X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecological Indicators |
| spelling | doaj-art-9eac92396beb49f3b310b1e39c4ebaa52025-01-31T05:10:52ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2025-01-01170113105The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and AustraliaChristos Mammides0Pan Wuyuan1Guohualing Huang2Rachakonda Sreekar3Christina Ieronymidou4Aiwu Jiang5Eben Goodale6Harris Papadopoulos7Nature Conservation Unit, Frederick University, Nicosia 1036, Cyprus; Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Centre for Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China; Corresponding author.Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530005, ChinaSchool of Environment and Science and Environmental Future Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, AustraliaSchool of Environment, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4067, AustraliaBirdLife Cyprus, Nicosia, 2340, CyprusGuangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530005, ChinaDepartment of Health and Environmental Science, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, ChinaDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Computer, Engineering and Informatics, Frederick University, Nicosia, 1036, CyprusHuman activities are accelerating biodiversity loss, necessitating tools capable of monitoring biodiversity patterns over large spatial and temporal scales. Passive acoustic monitoring methods, including acoustic indices, are emerging as a promising approach for surveying vocalizing animals. Numerous studies have assessed the effectiveness of acoustic indices in surveying animal communities, focusing mostly on birds and seven commonly used indices, yielding mixed results. Combining the indices has been proposed as a solution to produce more accurate predictions. In this study, we use data from 114 biodiverse sites in three countries, Cyprus, China, and Australia, to evaluate the combined effectiveness of sixty different acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness. Using the Boruta feature selection algorithm and random forest regressors, we find that the effectiveness of the indices varies considerably across study areas, and it is generally lower than what would be required to monitor bird species richness accurately (R2Cyprus = 0.06, R2China = 0.31, R2Australia = 0.52). Moreover, the most useful set of indices varied for each area; none of the sixty indices were useful in all three areas, and only three indices were useful in more than one area. Our findings, along with those of other recent studies, suggest that acoustic indices may not currently be an effective method for accurately monitoring bird species richness despite their utility in other applications, such as surveying broader biodiversity patterns. Moreover, we recommend that whenever researchers investigate the efficacy of acoustic indices, they consider all available indices to identify the most useful in their study region.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25000342Biodiversity monitoringEcoacousticsMachine-learningPassive acoustic monitoringRandom forest regressorsSoundscape ecology |
| spellingShingle | Christos Mammides Pan Wuyuan Guohualing Huang Rachakonda Sreekar Christina Ieronymidou Aiwu Jiang Eben Goodale Harris Papadopoulos The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia Ecological Indicators Biodiversity monitoring Ecoacoustics Machine-learning Passive acoustic monitoring Random forest regressors Soundscape ecology |
| title | The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia |
| title_full | The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia |
| title_fullStr | The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia |
| title_full_unstemmed | The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia |
| title_short | The combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in Cyprus, China, and Australia |
| title_sort | combined effectiveness of acoustic indices in measuring bird species richness in biodiverse sites in cyprus china and australia |
| topic | Biodiversity monitoring Ecoacoustics Machine-learning Passive acoustic monitoring Random forest regressors Soundscape ecology |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25000342 |
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