TY - JOUR

T1 - The efficacy of acoustic indices for monitoring abundance and diversity in soil soundscapes

AU - Metcalf, O.C.

AU - Nunes, C.A.

AU - Abrahams, C.

AU - Baccaro, F.B.

AU - Bradfer-Lawrence, T.

AU - Lees, A.C.

AU - Vale, E.M.

AU - Barlow, J.

N1 - Export Date: 18 December 2024 Correspondence Address: Metcalf, O.C.; Lancaster Environment Centre, United Kingdom; email: o.metcalf@mmu.ac.uk Funding details: Fondation BNP Paribas Funding details: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, CNPq Funding details: Natural Environment Research Council, NERC, NE/X015262/1 Funding details: Natural Environment Research Council, NERC Funding details: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES, 88887.469205/2019–00, 015/2023 Funding details: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES Funding text 1: This work was supported by the NERC Rainfauna project NE/X015262/1, PELD\u2010RAS (CNPq, Brazil/CAPES, Brazil/PELD, Brazil 441659/2016\u20100), and the BNP Paribas Foundation, France, Climate and Biodiversity Initiative (Project Bioclimate). CAN acknowledges Coordena\u00E7\u00E3o de Aperfei\u00E7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00EDvel Superior (CAPES) for a postdoc scholarship (grant No. 88887.469205/2019\u201300). FBB thanks EDITAL N\u00B0 015/2023 \u2212 PROMOB/FAPEAM for financial support.

PY - 2024/12/31

Y1 - 2024/12/31

N2 - Soil ecoacoustics is a rapidly emerging field heralded as a non-invasive method for monitoring soil fauna. Ecoacoustic analysis commonly uses acoustic indices to analyse soundscapes, linking them to ‘traditional’ biodiversity value metrics such as species richness and abundance, but it is not clear if this approach is appropriate for soil soundscapes. Furthermore, there are very few controlled experiments assessing how commonly used acoustic indices respond to different sound types, and none belowground. We address this by synthesising soil soundscapes with differing levels of acoustic richness, abundance, and evenness using soil recordings from the UK, France, and Brazil. Applying 14 acoustic indices on 1-minute soundscapes, we assessed: 1) how changes in acoustic diversity impact acoustic indices and 2) how accurately combinations of indices predict biodiversity metrics. Finally we assessed 3) whether gamma acoustic richness can be predicted accurately using multiple acoustic index scores from repeated surveys, whilst experimentally altering the alpha and beta diversity components. We find that acoustic abundance strongly affects values of acoustic indices designed to quantify the number of sound events in a soundscape, and that a combination of these indices can accurately predict abundance at 1-minute timescales. Combinations of indices could predict acoustic richness when richness values were low, but were ineffective for evenness. Additionally, acoustic indices were poor predictors of gamma diversity, especially when gamma was driven solely by beta diversity. Overall, we found that acoustic indices were good predictors of acoustic abundance, but should be used with caution for other diversity metrics.

AB - Soil ecoacoustics is a rapidly emerging field heralded as a non-invasive method for monitoring soil fauna. Ecoacoustic analysis commonly uses acoustic indices to analyse soundscapes, linking them to ‘traditional’ biodiversity value metrics such as species richness and abundance, but it is not clear if this approach is appropriate for soil soundscapes. Furthermore, there are very few controlled experiments assessing how commonly used acoustic indices respond to different sound types, and none belowground. We address this by synthesising soil soundscapes with differing levels of acoustic richness, abundance, and evenness using soil recordings from the UK, France, and Brazil. Applying 14 acoustic indices on 1-minute soundscapes, we assessed: 1) how changes in acoustic diversity impact acoustic indices and 2) how accurately combinations of indices predict biodiversity metrics. Finally we assessed 3) whether gamma acoustic richness can be predicted accurately using multiple acoustic index scores from repeated surveys, whilst experimentally altering the alpha and beta diversity components. We find that acoustic abundance strongly affects values of acoustic indices designed to quantify the number of sound events in a soundscape, and that a combination of these indices can accurately predict abundance at 1-minute timescales. Combinations of indices could predict acoustic richness when richness values were low, but were ineffective for evenness. Additionally, acoustic indices were poor predictors of gamma diversity, especially when gamma was driven solely by beta diversity. Overall, we found that acoustic indices were good predictors of acoustic abundance, but should be used with caution for other diversity metrics.

KW - Bioacoustics

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Ecoacoustics

KW - Monitoring

KW - Soil ecology

KW - Soil function

KW - Abiotic

KW - Biotic

KW - Environmental monitoring

KW - 1 minutes

KW - As species

KW - Biodiversity values

KW - Ecoacoustic

KW - Noninvasive methods

KW - Soil fauna

KW - Soundscapes

KW - Species richness

KW - Invertebrates

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112954

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112954

M3 - Journal article

VL - 169

JO - Ecological Indicators

JF - Ecological Indicators

SN - 1470-160X

M1 - 112954

ER -