Bioacoustic Unit

The BU manages one of the largest digital archives of sound data in the world. Over two human life-times of data from over 20,000 locations have been measured over the last decade. The archive uses standardized approaches based on humans listening to the data to measure the abundance of species and how it changes over time. However, we push the archive to see what additional ecological information can be extracted. This is done by using computers to improve how the sound is extracted in order to use the rich biological information it contains. Our ultimate goal is to use ARUs to move beyond animal abundance, using the different elements of soundscapes to help inform how ecological systems are changing. We do this by integrating sound with other technologies like cameras and remote sensing to predict and model the state of biodiversity at very large spatial scales.

Recent scientific advances in the area of bioacoustics made by the BU include:

• Calculating arrival timing of birds to track if they are adapting to earlier springs;
• Estimating the distance at which animals are detected by ARUs to improve density estimates;
• Mapping human noise pollution across Alberta;
• Measuring hunting patterns in provincial parks:
• Assessing wolf abundance by integrating remote cameras and howling data;
• Mapping spatial behaviour of birds using sound triangulation to position birds to within 1 m; and
• Determining if male birds have attracted a female mate based on singing behaviour.