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A new method for ecoacoustics? Toward the extraction and evaluation of ecologically-meaningful soundscape components using sparse coding methods

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posted on 2023-06-09, 01:15 authored by Alice EldridgeAlice Eldridge, Michael Casey, Paola Moscoso, Mika PeckMika Peck
Passive acoustic monitoring is emerging as a promising non-invasive proxy for ecological complexity with potential as a tool for remote assessment and monitoring (Sueur and Farina, 2015). Rather than attempting to recognise species-specific calls, either manually or automatically, there is a growing interest in evaluating the global acoustic environment. Positioned within the conceptual framework of ecoacoustics, a growing number of indices have been proposed which aim to capture community-level dynamics by (e.g. Pieretti et al., 2011; Farina, 2014; Sueur et al., 2008b) by providing statistical summaries of the frequency or time domain signal. Although promising, the ecological relevance and efficacy as a monitoring tool of these indices is still unclear. In this paper we suggest that by virtue of operating in the time or frequency domain, existing indices are limited in their ability to access key structural information in the spectro-temporal domain. Alternative methods in which time-frequency dynamics are preserved are considered. Sparse-coding and source separation algorithms (specifically, shift-invariant probabilistic latent component analysis in 2D) are proposed as a means to access and summarise time- frequency dynamics which may be more ecologically-meaningful.

Funding

Rapid Acoustic Survey: Validating Acoustic Methods for Biodiversity Assessment; G1606; LEVERHULME TRUST; RPG-2014-403

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

PeerJ

ISSN

2376-5992

Publisher

PeerJ

Volume

4

Page range

1-23

Article number

e2108

Department affiliated with

  • Evolution, Behaviour and Environment Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Humanities Lab Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-05-16

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-05-16

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-05-16

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