Soundscapes reveal disturbance impacts: biophonic response to wildfire in the Sonoran Desert Sky Islands

Context While remote sensing imagery is effective for quantifying land cover changes across large areas, its utility for directly assessing the response of animals to disturbance is limited. Soundscapes approaches—the recording and analysis of sounds in a landscape—could address this shortcoming. Ob...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Landscape ecology 2018-08, Vol.33 (8), p.1399-1415
Main Authors: Gasc, Amandine, Gottesman, Benjamin L., Francomano, Dante, Jung, Jinha, Durham, Mark, Mateljak, Jason, Pijanowski, Bryan C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Biodiversity and Ecology
Biological activity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Desert environments
Deserts
Disturbance
Diurnal
Ecology
Ecosystems
Environmental Management
Environmental Sciences
Imagery
Insects
Land cover
Land use
Landscape
Landscape Ecology
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
Life Sciences
Nature Conservation
Nocturnal
Remote sensing
Research Article
Sound sources
Sustainable Development
Wildfires
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:Context While remote sensing imagery is effective for quantifying land cover changes across large areas, its utility for directly assessing the response of animals to disturbance is limited. Soundscapes approaches—the recording and analysis of sounds in a landscape—could address this shortcoming. Objectives In 2011, a massive wildfire named “the Horseshoe 2 Burn” occurred in the Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, USA. We evaluated the impact of this wildfire on acoustic activity of animal communities. Methods In 2013, soundscape recordings were collected over 9 months in 12 burned and 12 non-burned sites in four ecological systems. The seasonal and diel biological acoustic activity were described using the “Bioacoustic Index”, a detailed aural analysis of sound sources, and a new tool called “Sonic Timelapse Builder” (STLB). Results Seasonal biophony phenology showed a diurnal peak in June and a nocturnal peak in October in all ecological systems. On June mornings, acoustic activity was lower at burned than at non-burned sites in three of four ecological systems, due to a decreased abundance of cicadas directly impacted by the death of trees. Aural analyses revealed that 55% of recordings from non-burned sites contained insect sounds compared to 18% from burned sites. On October nights, orthopteran activity was more prevalent at some burned sites, possibly due to post-fire emergence of herbaceous. Conclusions Soundscape approaches can help address long-term conservation issues involving the responses of animal communities to wildfire. Acoustic methods can serve as a valuable complement to remote sensing for disturbance-based landscape management.
ISSN:0921-2973
1572-9761
DOI:10.1007/s10980-018-0675-3