Real-time bioacoustics monitoring and automated species identification

PeerJ. 2013 Jul 16:1:e103. doi: 10.7717/peerj.103. Print 2013.

Abstract

Traditionally, animal species diversity and abundance is assessed using a variety of methods that are generally costly, limited in space and time, and most importantly, they rarely include a permanent record. Given the urgency of climate change and the loss of habitat, it is vital that we use new technologies to improve and expand global biodiversity monitoring to thousands of sites around the world. In this article, we describe the acoustical component of the Automated Remote Biodiversity Monitoring Network (ARBIMON), a novel combination of hardware and software for automating data acquisition, data management, and species identification based on audio recordings. The major components of the cyberinfrastructure include: a solar powered remote monitoring station that sends 1-min recordings every 10 min to a base station, which relays the recordings in real-time to the project server, where the recordings are processed and uploaded to the project website (arbimon.net). Along with a module for viewing, listening, and annotating recordings, the website includes a species identification interface to help users create machine learning algorithms to automate species identification. To demonstrate the system we present data on the vocal activity patterns of birds, frogs, insects, and mammals from Puerto Rico and Costa Rica.

Keywords: Acoustic monitoring; Animal vocalization; Long-term monitoring; Machine learning; Species-specific algorithms.

Grants and funding

Funds for this research were provided by the DOD Legacy program (W912DY-07-2-0006- P00001, P00002, P0003), National Science Foundation (0640143), and the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras (FIPI). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.