Soundscape Ecology, the physical combination of sounds at a particular time and place, is a rapidly growing field. As acoustic technology advances, several possible future uses of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), such as biodiversity counts and monitoring of habitat health, are being explored. This thesis is divided into two chapters; each is a stand-alone paper. The first chapter provides a review of soundscape ecology, ambient sound, current recording methods and data analysis used in PAM studies, and identifies several major future recommendations for the field. One of these recommendations is to standardize recording methods and indices used during analysis in long-term studies. The second chapter analyzes a 55-minute continuous recording on a coral reef in Tunicate Cove, Belize in 1996 by Professor P. Lobel. This recording was then subsampled with several intermittent recording schedules to explore the amount of acoustic information lost as periods of active and inactive recording vary. The continuous recording consisted of a high frequency band (3-4 kHz), which may correspond to abiotic sounds, and a low frequency band (0.1-0.5 kHz), which generally corresponds to biotic sounds. Two recording schedules, 30 seconds every 4 minutes and 2 minutes every 10 minutes, were significantly correlated with the continuous recording. The statistical significance of the other five recording schedules varied among the three parameters tested in this study (average power (dB), average entropy, and aggregate entropy).

An important step for protecting Endangered species is the identification of critical habitat. This can be especially challenging for deep ocean species. Northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus) are deep-diving beaked whales of the North Atlantic. A population of this species occurs along the edge of the Scotian Shelf primarily in three submarine canyons that have been identified as critical habitat for the population: the Gully (the largest submarine canyon off eastern North America), Shortland Canyon and Haldimand Canyon. The Scotian Shelf population is considered Endangered mainly due to its small numbers and the anthropogenic threats it faces. The primary objective of my research was to further identify critical habitat of the population using passive acoustic monitoring, increasing knowledge of how the whales use the canyons and adjacent areas throughout the year. A review of the literature on cetacean associations with submarine canyons indicates that various mechanisms may act to attract cetaceans to these features. While many different species occur in canyons globally, they appear to be particularly important habitat for beaked whales. I developed an automated click detection algorithm customized for detecting northern bottlenose whale echolocation clicks, and long-term acoustic recordings were analyzed to examine the presence and relative abundance of northern bottlenose whales on the Scotian Slope over various spatial and temporal scales. The whales occurred in the area consistently throughout the year and all three canyons, as well as the area between canyons, appeared to be important foraging grounds for the population. The whales displayed diurnal foraging patterns. I also investigated niche separation between northern bottlenose whales and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), another deep diving species. The presence of the two species was positively correlated over all spatial and temporal scales examined. These results indicate that areas within and adjacent to the Gully are important foraging grounds for northern bottlenose whales throughout the year. Furthermore, in addition to the canyons themselves, the shelf-edge areas between the Gully, Shortland and Haldimand canyons may constitute critical habitat for the whales. This research will be used to inform management measures relevant to the protection and recovery of this Endangered population.

Recent technique advances have made sensor nodes to be smaller, cheaper and more powerful. Compared with traditional centralized sensing systems, wireless sensor networks are very easy to deploy and can be deployed densely. They have a better sensing coverage and provide more reliable information delivery. Those advantages make wireless sensor networks very useful in a wide variety of applications. As one of active research areas, acoustic monitoring with wireless sensor networks is still new, and very few applications can recognize human voice, discriminate human speech and music, or identify individual speakers. In this thesis work, we designed and implemented an acoustic monitoring system with a wireless sensor network to classify human voice versus music. We also introduce a new, effective sound source localization method, using Root Mean Square (RMS) detected by different nodes of a wireless sensor network to estimate the speaker's location. The experimental results show that our approaches are effective. This research could form a basis for further developing speech recognition, speaker identification, even emotion detection with wireless sensor networks.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:51:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:06:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:51:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:06:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Vazamentos em tubos pressurizados geram ondas acústicas que se propagam através das paredes destes tubos, as quais podem ser captadas por acelerômetros ou por sensores de emissão acústica. O conhecimento de como estas paredes podem vibrar, ou de outro modo como as ondas acústicas se propagam neste meio, é fundamental em um processo de detecção e localização da fonte de vazamento. Neste trabalho, foi implementado um modelo analítico, através das equações de movimento da casca cilíndrica, com o objetivo de entender o comportamento da superfície do tubo em função de uma excitação pontual. Como a superfície cilíndrica é um meio fechado na direção circunferencial, ondas que iniciaram sua jornada, a partir de uma fonte pontual sobre a superfície, se encontrarão com outras que já completaram a volta na casca cilíndrica, tanto no sentido horário como no anti-horário, gerando interferências construtivas e destrutivas. Após um tempo suficiente, uma estacionariedade é atingida, criando pontos de picos e vales na superfície da casca, os quais podem ser visualizadas através de uma representação gráfica do modelo analítico criado. Os resultados teóricos foram comprovados através de medidas realizadas em uma bancada de testes composta de um tubo de aço terminado em caixa de areia, simulando a condição de tubo infinito. Para proceder à localização da fonte pontual sobre a superfície, adotou-se o processo de solução inversa, ou seja, conhecidos os sinais dos sensores dispostos na superfície do tubo, determina-se através do modelo teórico onde a fonte que gerou estes sinais pode estar. / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Since white-nose syndrome (WNS) arrived in the northeastern U.S. in 2006, several affected bat species have exhibited marked population declines (> 90%). For areas such as Fort Drum in northern New York that are subject to regulatory mandates because of the presence of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), acoustic monitoring is now likely more effective than traditional capture methodologies. In the summers of 2011 and 2012, I implemented intensive acoustic sampling using Anabat detectors at Fort Drum to develop a summer acoustic monitoring protocol that is both cost efficient and effective at detecting species of high conservation or management interest, such as the Indiana bat and the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). Habitat analysis of radio telemetry data and occupancy models of acoustic data were congruent in confirming nocturnal spatial use of forested riparian zones by little brown bats.  Additionally, occupancy models of passive versus active sampling revealed that passive acoustic sampling is preferable to active sampling for detecting declining species in the post-WNS context. Finally, assessment of detection probabilities at various arrays of acoustic detector layouts in an expected area of use revealed that a grid of detectors covering a wide spatial extent was more effective at detecting Indiana and little brown bats than permanent stations, transects, or double transects. My findings suggest that acoustic monitoring can be affectively implemented for monitoring Indiana and little brown bats even in areas of severe decline. Future efforts should be aimed at determining effective sampling designs for additional declining species. / Master of Science

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第24936号 / 情博第847号 / 新制||情||142(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 大手 信人, 准教授 小山 里奈, 教授 三田村 啓理, 准教授 市川 光太郎 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Nightjars are a group of nocturnal and aerial insectivorous birds that have experienced long-term decline likely driven primarily by habitat loss and declines in prey populations. Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) and Chuck-will’s-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis), two nightjar species native to Illinois, declined 69% and 58% since 1966, respectively. Although previous survey efforts have documented presence of Chuck-will’s-widow and Whip-poor-will, their current distribution in the state is not well known. Using Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) deployed in a uniform, systematic grid, I surveyed 142 locations from May – July 2022 on public and private lands across the southern eleven counties of Illinois to assess Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will’s-widow distribution and estimate species occupancy. I estimated species relationships with proportion of landcover types, forest patch configuration, and proximity to other landcover types. Additionally, I quantified disturbances from the past 15 years to estimate species relationships to the severity and duration of disturbances. I deployed ARUs for 710 survey days collecting 170,400 minutes or 3,000 hours of recordings. Acoustic bird call identification software, BirdNet, was highly accurate at detecting focal species and greatly reduced the time spent manually reviewing acoustic data. BirdNet identified 43,922 calls of Whip-poor-will and 31,447 calls of Chuck-will’s-widow. I detected Whip-poor-will on 78 surveys with 100% accuracy and Chuck-will’s-widow on 75 surveys with 76% accuracy. Whip-poor-will were positively associated with forest patches with large core areas that neighbored pastures. Additionally, Whip-poor-will were likely to occupy landscapes that had experienced low to moderate disturbance within the previous 15 years. Covariates used to model Chuck-will’s-widow occupancy explained little variation in detection or occupancy and there were no significant relationships with any covariate. However, examining non-significant trends suggest similar relationships as Whip-poor-will in the area. Results highlight the efficiency of passive acoustic monitoring for these birds and the need for further investigation into Chuck-will’s-widow species-environmental relationships. In southern Illinois, Chuck-will’s-widow populations appears to be consistent with previous estimates from the 1990s while Whip-poor-will follow the broader trend of decline.

No description available.

Acoustic communication in anurans plays a critical role in species recognition, defending territories and resources, and finding a mate. Anurans use a number of different call note types to communicate, from which the most notable are advertisement- and aggression calls. Optimum weather conditions are a precursor to the commencement of the breeding season for all frog species and their calling behaviour is therefore readily influenced by atmospheric conditions. Male frogs within a chorus also tend to call from territories within a specific range of distances from one another. The objectives of this study were to 1) determine a possible context in which call note types are produced, 2) to determine the effect of atmospheric conditions on calling behaviour and 3) to determine the spacing distances between males and females in a chorus of Queckett’s River Frog (Amietia quecketti). Pre-recorded note types were used in a playback experiment to determine a context for elicited responses. A context was derived for six of the responses. Advertisement (clicks and whines), aggression (creaks), encounter (tonal notes), territorial (whine-tonal notes), and release calls (squeaks) were described. Calls and atmospheric conditions were recorded and correlated for an entire breeding season. Water temperature, wind speed, humidity and barometric pressure had a significant effect on calling intensity. As water temperature decreased calling intensity increased, while increased wind temperature led to increased calling intensity. Amietia quecketti calls from the water, explaining the effect while increased wind speed decreases water temperature and can carry sound further. Both humidity and barometric pressure showed increased calling intensity only at specific levels. Humidity and barometric pressure have a direct effect on one another, which most likely causes the correlation between calling intensity and both these variables. In this study A. quecketti was shown to have breeding ponds for males and resting ponds and positions for non-gravid females. This prevents unwanted or unnecessary amplexus. Males showed much smaller and less variable territory sizes than females. This is most likely because males have a small range of optimal spacing distance while females move towards and away from males. The presence of vegetation resulted in smaller territories. This is possibly because smaller males act as satellite males and cannot be seen by larger males in vegetation. The size of males did not affect territory size. Males have a specific inter-male spacing distance regardless of size. / MSc (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015