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Using soundscapes to detect variable degrees of human influence on tropical forests in Papua New Guinea.
- Source :
-
Conservation Biology . Feb2018, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p205-215. 11p. - Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- There is global concern about tropical forest degradation, in part, because of the associated loss of biodiversity. Communities and indigenous people play a fundamental role in tropical forest management and are often efficient at preventing forest degradation. However, monitoring changes in biodiversity due to degradation, especially at a scale appropriate to local tropical forest management, is plagued by difficulties, including the need for expert training, inconsistencies across observers, and lack of baseline or reference data. We used a new biodiversity remote-sensing technology, the recording of soundscapes, to test whether the acoustic saturation of a tropical forest in Papua New Guinea decreases as land-use intensity by the communities that manage the forest increases. We sampled soundscapes continuously for 24 hours at 34 sites in different land-use zones of 3 communities. Land-use zones where forest cover was fully retained had significantly higher soundscape saturation during peak acoustic activity times (i.e., dawn and dusk chorus) compared with land-use types with fragmented forest cover. We conclude that, in Papua New Guinea, the relatively simple measure of soundscape saturation may provide a cheap, objective, reproducible, and effective tool for monitoring tropical forest deviation from an intact state, particularly if it is used to detect the presence of intact dawn and dusk choruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *FOREST degradation
*BIODIVERSITY
*FOREST management
*LAND use
*TROPICAL forests
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 08888892
- Volume :
- 32
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Conservation Biology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 127113483
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12968