Acoustic signaling and reception are integral to the survival of a wide variety of organisms, ranging from small invertebrates to the largest whales. Animals rely on sound for a number of fundamental life functions including locating food, selecting mates and avoiding predation. Increases in background noise from human activities can have serious impacts on sensory ecology by reducing the range signals can be detected. This EAGER award outlines a pilot project to use acoustic monitoring to document levels and temporal patterns of anthropogenic noise in natural environments and diel activity patterns and seasonal phenology of vocal taxa across regional spatial scales. Techniques and algorithms normally associated with marine mammal research will be modified and used to evaluate these capabilities at National Ecological Observatory sites. Biocoustical monitoring has the potential to provide archival records of first occurrence of acoustic activity for all species that produce sound at a given location. As such, acoustic recording can provide an achievable long-term record of phenology of breeding behavior for multiple species, in multiple taxonomic groups, simultaneously. Coupling these data with long-term climatological measurements at and between NEON sites will provide a strong dataset to assess phenological events relating to breeding activity to a diversity of species. This award will utilize acoustic recordings at four current sites in NEON to address two scientific objectives: Objective 1) Collect long-term acoustic recordings at four NEON sites across an urban ecosystem gradient and apply automated signal detection algorithms and noise measurements to quantify the prevalence and levels of noise at each site generated by transportation (automobile, plane and train) and mineral extraction (oil & gas wells). Objective 2) Develop automated signal processing tools to identify diel and seasonal trends in acoustic signals produced by benchmark bird, amphibian, and insect breeding chorusing at these same four NEON sites to assess changes in migration and breeding activities associated with local climate change.
Using acoustics to study continental wide the impacts of human activities on wildlife is a new approach to providing ecological data from remote sensing. This project includes significant training and educational components for two female graduate students and undergraduates from under-represented groups who will be involved in the research and outreach components of the proposed study. Focused outreach activities will engage underrepresented minority K-12 students from the Syracuse University School System in science research though an established early college program at the Syracuse University Department of Biology.
