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08/2020: Capturing Summer Soundscapes in Dr. Forest Plots

The automated recorders are up and running, and data collection has officially begun! 

A total of 114 Audiomoths are hanging on trees throughout the larger of our Dr. Forest plots in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Poland. Our task group (Task 1.2) will collect audio recordings for one month in every season with the aim to relate acoustic diversity to forest diversity more generally. We will identify relationships between the acoustic diversity and species composition of different plots, and test how these patterns hold or change throughout different seasons of the year.

The Audiomoth is a very small (it can fit in the palm of your hand); however we’ve custom-built weatherproof housing to ensure long-term durability in all seasons. Summer 2020 (July – August) will be our first recording period, and data collection will be ongoing through Summer 2021. There have been some very minor logistical hiccups due to Covid-19 in coordinating the fieldwork such that all the recording start times coincided between sites, and due to fantastic efforts from our partners at each site, we now have simultaneous recordings in many of our plots and are eagerly awaiting the first batch of data!

Contribution by: Taylor Shaw (T1.2, WP1). Photo credits: top: Loïc Gillerot; Taylor Shaw.