Public Engagement Technology for Bioacoustic Citizen Science

Inexpensive mobile devices offer new capabilities for non-specialist use in the field for the purpose of conservation. This thesis explores the potential for such devices to be used by citizen scientists interacting with bioacoustic data such as birdsong. This thesis describes design research and field evaluation, in collaboration with conservationists and educators, and technological artefacts implemented as mobile applications for interactive educational gaming and creative composition. This thesis considers, from a participant-centric collaborative design approach, conservationists' demand for interactive artefacts to motivate engagement in citizen science through gameful and playful interactions. Drawing on theories of motivation, frequently applied to the study of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and on approaches to designing for motivational engagement, this thesis introduces a novel pair of frameworks for the analysis of technological artefacts and for assessing participant engagement with bioacoustic citizen science from both game interaction design and citizen science project participation perspectives. This thesis reviews current theories of playful and gameful interaction developed for collaborative learning, data analysis, and ground-truth development, describes a process for design and analysis of motivational mobile games and toys, and explores the affordances of various game elements and mechanics for engaging participation in bioacoustic citizen science. This thesis proposes research into progressions for scaffolding engagement with citizen science projects where participants interact with data collection and analysis artefacts. The research process includes the development of multiple designs, analyses of which explore the efficacy of game interactions to motivate engagement through interaction progressions, given proposed analysis frameworks. This thesis presents analysed results of experiments examining the usability of, and data-quality from, several prototypes and software artefacts, in both laboratory conditions and the field. This thesis culminates with an assessment of the efficacy of proposed design analysis frameworks, an analysis of designed artefacts, and a discussion of how these designs increase intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for participant engagement and affect resultant bioacoustic citizen science data quantity and quality.Non

Bioacoustics as a research tool for avian ecology and conservation

1. Ecological data from effective survey and monitoring methods are vitally important for evidence-based nature conservation. This need is increasingly being met by technological developments that enable new approaches for collecting biodiversity data. Among these, acoustic techniques can potentially improve the detection and census of vocal taxa such as birds, and can inform habitat quality assessments. 2. Although improvements in hardware and software for acoustic data capture and analysis are providing new tools for scientific researchers and conservation managers, the advancing technology needs to be matched by methodological understanding, good practice, and accepted protocols. These norms and standards do not yet exist for effective application by users. 3. The published work presented here sets out novel research on bird bioacoustics and freshwater ecoacoustics, applying this to species and habitats of high conservation concern. The publications aim to show how the acoustic approach may be used to determine occupancy, assess population size, understand behaviour and determine community characteristics. Vocal activity rates in bird species are studied and occupancy models created, to interpret acoustic data captured in the field. Different song types, potentially related to breeding status, are identified for a priority species. The ecoacoustic approach is used to assess freshwater ecosystem quality, based on the overall soundscape. 4. The results of the published works have been used to better target acoustic monitoring studies and improve the quality of existing survey methods. This knowledge transfer has been enabled by the development and publication of acoustic protocols for bird survey and freshwater habitat assessment. Further testing is still required to establish optimal standard practices for survey and monitoring, but bioacoustics and ecoacoustics offer significant new approaches for more effective monitoring of species and habitats of conservation concern

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Ecological Informatics: translating ecological data into knowledge and decisions in a rapidly changing world: ICEI 2018

The Conference Proceedings are an impressive display of the current scope of Ecological Informatics. Whilst Data Management, Analysis, Synthesis and Forecasting have been lasting popular themes over the past nine biannual ICEI conferences, ICEI 2018 addresses distinctively novel developments in Data Acquisition enabled by cutting edge in situ and remote sensing technology. The here presented ICEI 2018 abstracts captures well current trends and challenges of Ecological Informatics towards: • regional, continental and global sharing of ecological data, • thorough integration of complementing monitoring technologies including DNA-barcoding, • sophisticated pattern recognition by deep learning, • advanced exploration of valuable information in ‘big data’ by means of machine learning and process modelling, • decision-informing solutions for biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem management in light of global changes

Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Ecological Informatics: translating ecological data into knowledge and decisions in a rapidly changing world: ICEI 2018

The Conference Proceedings are an impressive display of the current scope of Ecological Informatics. Whilst Data Management, Analysis, Synthesis and Forecasting have been lasting popular themes over the past nine biannual ICEI conferences, ICEI 2018 addresses distinctively novel developments in Data Acquisition enabled by cutting edge in situ and remote sensing technology. The here presented ICEI 2018 abstracts captures well current trends and challenges of Ecological Informatics towards: • regional, continental and global sharing of ecological data, • thorough integration of complementing monitoring technologies including DNA-barcoding, • sophisticated pattern recognition by deep learning, • advanced exploration of valuable information in ‘big data’ by means of machine learning and process modelling, • decision-informing solutions for biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem management in light of global changes

Exploring Animal Behavior Through Sound: Volume 1

This open-access book empowers its readers to explore the acoustic world of animals. By listening to the sounds of nature, we can study animal behavior, distribution, and demographics; their habitat characteristics and needs; and the effects of noise. Sound recording is an efficient and affordable tool, independent of daylight and weather; and recorders may be left in place for many months at a time, continuously collecting data on animals and their environment. This book builds the skills and knowledge necessary to collect and interpret acoustic data from terrestrial and marine environments. Beginning with a history of sound recording, the chapters provide an overview of off-the-shelf recording equipment and analysis tools (including automated signal detectors and statistical methods); audiometric methods; acoustic terminology, quantities, and units; sound propagation in air and under water; soundscapes of terrestrial and marine habitats; animal acoustic and vibrational communication; echolocation; and the effects of noise. This book will be useful to students and researchers of animal ecology who wish to add acoustics to their toolbox, as well as to environmental managers in industry and government

Standardised methods for collaborative long-term monitoring and management of cetaceans in Wales

Monitoring long terms trends of species abundance is a fundamental requirement for effective conservation. Surveying wildlife creates a baseline to measure changes in the population and to detect and manage specific abiotic and biotic threats. However, long term monitoring is not always effective or achievable because of insufficient finances, resources, planning or limited project focus. Establishing a collaborative network of scientists to bring together similar research may provide the solution as seen with networks on seagrass, aquatic macrophytes and avian populations. Frequently there are many organisations working in isolation using multiple approaches on similar species. This case study specifically investigates the social barriers leading to a lack of collaborative efforts in cetacean monitoring in Wales where there are four organisations independently undertaking systematic long-term monitoring. Here, I produce, trial and analyse a simple low-cost standardised methodology that could be used for long-term monitoring by multiple organisations and review the potential of a collaborative acoustics project to enable simple comparisons of encounter rates for cetaceans Wales-wide. An online questionnaire to stakeholders revealed that primary barriers to collaborative research were personality differences and funding competition; participants indicated that the re-establishment of a marine mammal working group by Natural Resources Wales would enable development of personal relationships and fair access to resources. Similar working groups have been established in terrestrial and aquatic ecology which have attempted to overcome the challenges in effective long-term monitoring. It is anticipated that this research could be duplicated to other species to assess any barriers and solutions to collaborative working and establish more cohesive long-term monitoring strategies in ecology