Amphibians

At the ABMI, we monitor a systematic grid of 1,656 sites that are evenly distributed across the province. This allows us to monitor all the unique habitats that exist in our province. At each location, we deploy several ARUs that record at set intervals throughout the day and retrieve them after several months of activity. This approach has two key benefits:

1) As a digital record is created, the recording can be reviewed multiple times to ensure proper species identification; and
2) This extended sampling effort increases the probability of detecting a species.

All of our recordings are uploaded to the WildTrax platform where they are heard by trained technicians. For each recording, the technicians track information about species identification, when a species vocalized, if  one or many individuals were calling, the type of vocalization, and the confidence in their identification. This allows us to have higher levels of quality control in our data compared to observations made in the field.

These observations are essential for us to develop our species-habitat models. Our models allow us to identify which habitat species prefer and how they are distributed throughout the province. We can then use this information to inform environmental management responses.

In addition to our systematic grid, we incorporate data from monitoring programs and wetland surveys implemented by both the ABMI and the Bioacoustic Unit across Alberta. Find more information on our amphibian monitoring and species distribution models here: https://abbiodiversity.github.io/AmphibianModels/data-collection.html#data-collection.

Find more data initial reporting on the status of amphibians in Alberta using the ABMI and Bioacoustic Unit in the Wetland Atlas of Alberta.