Sound-mapping a coniferous forest-Perspectives for biodiversity monitoring and noise mitigation

PLoS One. 2018 Jan 10;13(1):e0189843. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189843. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Acoustic diversity indices have been proposed as low-cost biodiversity monitoring tools. The acoustic diversity of a soundscape can be indicative of the richness of an acoustic community and the structural/vegetation characteristics of a habitat. There is a need to apply these methods to landscapes that are ecologically and/or economically important. We investigate the relationship between the acoustic properties of a coniferous forest with stand-age and structure. We sampled a 73 point grid in part of the UK's largest man-made lowland coniferous plantation forest, covering a 320ha mosaic of different aged stands. Forest stands ranged from 0-85 years old providing an age-gradient. Short soundscape recordings were collected from each grid point on multiple mornings (between 6am-11am) to capture the dawn chorus. We repeated the study during July/August in 2014 and again in 2015. Five acoustic indices were calculated for a total of 889 two minute samples. Moderate relationships between acoustic diversity with forest stand-age and vegetation characteristics (canopy height; canopy cover) were observed. Ordinations suggest that as structural complexity and forest age increases, the higher frequency bands (4-10KHz) become more represented in the soundscape. A strong linear relationship was observed between distance to the nearest road and the ratio of anthropogenic noise to biological sounds within the soundscape. Similar acoustic patterns were observed in both years, though acoustic diversity was generally lower in 2014, which was likely due to differences in wind conditions between years. Our results suggest that developing these relatively low-cost acoustic monitoring methods to inform adaptive management of production landscapes, may lead to improved biodiversity monitoring. The methods may also prove useful for modelling road noise, landscape planning and noise mitigation.

MeSH terms

  • Biodiversity*
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods*
  • Forests*
  • Noise*
  • Tracheophyta*

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for the study. AT used his bursary/salary from his GTA/PhD studentship to buy equipment for the study. Due to this the authors acknowledge the University of Kent 50 Year Anniversary GTA Scholarship, which AT was supported by. They also acknowledge the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology who provide a yearly small bursary to all PhD students to contribute to their studies. AT used this to purchase recording equipment for this study.