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Pijper, Marjolein, 2023. Evaluating forest restoration effects on timing of avian dawn chorus in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. Second cycle, A2E. Umeå: SLU, Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies

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Abstract

Monitoring of forest restoration efforts is essential to ensure healthy, self-sustaining tropical rainforests. Passive acoustic monitoring is used to monitor vocal activity of birds, which play a key role in forest ecosystems as seed dispersers. Communication between birds seems most profitable during a peak of bird singing in the morning, known as the dawn chorus. Anthropogenic disturbances leading to increased light levels affect the timing of this chorus in individual species. This research sheds a light on the effect of forest restoration on the dawn chorus using automatic detection methods to identify bird sounds from acoustic data. Machine learning methods like clustering and pattern matching were used alongside a manual analysis to describe the dawn chorus in protected forests as well as restoration sites around Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar.
Restoration sites were found to have lower species richness and increased interference from insect sounds. No difference was found between timing of the dawn chorus in both forest habitats. This can possibly be assigned to changes in community composition and decreased detectability of species in insect-dominated landscapes. Future research could further disentangle these effects, by filtering of acoustic data, development of workflow pathways and the use of stronger machine learning methods that allow for more reliable species-specific detection. In the current state of automatic acoustic methods, close cooperation with local experts is recommended to achieve effective monitoring in tropical rainforests.

Main title:Evaluating forest restoration effects on timing of avian dawn chorus in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar
Authors:Pijper, Marjolein
Supervisor:Hofmeester, Tim and Cromsigt, Joris and Martinsson, John
Examiner:Löfroth, Therese
Series:Examensarbete / SLU, Institutionen för vilt, fisk och miljö
Volume/Sequential designation:2023:46
Year of Publication:2023
Level and depth descriptor:Second cycle, A2E
Student's programme affiliation:Other
Supervising department:(S) > Dept. of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
Keywords:acoustic monitoring, forest restoration, dawn chorus, avian singing, bird monitoring, automatic recognition
URN:NBN:urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-19549
Permanent URL:
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-s-19549
Language:English
Deposited On:13 Oct 2023 09:51
Metadata Last Modified:14 Oct 2023 01:01

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