Agricultural Landscape Composition Linked with Acoustic Measures of Avian Diversity

Adam P Dixon,Erle C Ellis,Matthew E Baker

doi:10.3390/land9050145

Adam P Dixon, Erle C Ellis + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/land9050145

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Journal: Land	Publication Date: May 10, 2020
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Abstract

Measuring, monitoring, and managing biodiversity across agricultural regions depends on methods that can combine high-resolution mapping of landscape patterns with local biodiversity observations. This study explores the potential to monitor biodiversity in agricultural landscapes by linking high-resolution remote sensing with passive acoustic monitoring. Land cover maps produced using a small unmanned aerial system (UAS) and PlanetScope (PS) satellite imagery were used to investigate relationships between landscape patterns and an acoustically derived biodiversity index (vocalizing bird species richness) across 12 agricultural sample locations equipped with acoustic recorders in Iowa, USA during the 2018 growing season. Statistical assessment revealed a significant direct association between vocalizing bird richness and percent noncrop vegetation cover. High spatial resolution (1 m) UAS mapping produced stronger statistical associations than PS-based maps (3 m) for landscape composition metrics. Landscape configuration metrics (Shannon’s diversity index, contagion, perimeter-area-ratio, and circumscribing circle index) were either cross-correlated with composition metrics or unusable owing to complete landscape homogeneity in some agricultural landscape samples. This study shows that high resolution mapping of noncrop vegetation cover can be linked with acoustic monitoring of unique bird vocalizations to provide a useful indicator of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

Highlights

Agriculture covers nearly 40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface [1]
Or in association with imaging systems, passive monitoring systems, including acoustic recorders, radio tracking chips, and camera traps are emerging as low-cost tools for assessing the presence, abundance, and species richness of a variety biological taxa, including insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals [9,12,13,14]
This study examines whether relationships between avian diversity and agricultural landscape patterns can be observed by combining low-cost acoustic monitoring with high-resolution remote patterns can be observed by combining low-cost acoustic monitoring with high-resolution remote sensing data from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and PlanetScope (PS) satellite borne optical sensors

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture covers nearly 40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface [1]. Together with forestry, settlements, and other infrastructures, agricultural land use has transformed more than three quarters of Earth’s land into the heterogenous working landscapes of anthromes, within which many wild species sustain themselves in fragments of remnant, recovering and less-used habitats [2,3,4]. Or in association with imaging systems, passive monitoring systems, including acoustic recorders, radio tracking chips, and camera traps are emerging as low-cost tools for assessing the presence, abundance, and species richness of a variety biological taxa, including insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals [9,12,13,14]. Combining these technologies can enable powerful and detailed measurements of biodiversity across landscapes at lower costs than census-based approaches, through

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