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Sinsch U, Tuyisingize D, Dehling JM, van der Hoek Y. Species Assembly of Highland Anuran Communities in Equatorial Africa (Virunga Massif): Soundscape, Acoustic Niches, and Partitioning. Animals (Basel) 2024; 14:2360. [PMID: 39199894 PMCID: PMC11350915 DOI: 10.3390/ani14162360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2024] [Revised: 08/08/2024] [Accepted: 08/12/2024] [Indexed: 09/01/2024] Open
Abstract
The soundscape is a complex arrangement of sounds originating from animals and the environment. It is considered a reliable proxy for ecosystem niche structure at the community level. Acoustic communities of anuran species include advertising males, which compete in acoustic space for conspecific females. Stochastic niche theory predicts that all local niches are occupied, and the acoustic community is species-saturated. Acoustic niches, which include the spectral and temporal call structure and diel and seasonal patterns of call activity, are of similar breadth with small overlap. We tested these predictions in four communities inhabiting pristine wetlands at 2546-3188 m a.s.l. in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. We sampled 74 days of hourly 5 min recordings of the local soundscape (September 2019-March 2020) using passive automated monitoring devices (Songmeter SM4). We identified species based on the advertisement call features and measured call activity as calls per minute. The communities included 4-6, species depending on wetland structure, with a shared stock of three species (Hyperolius castaneus, H. glandicolor, Leptopelis kivuensis). Independent of elevation, niche breadth for call features was similar among species and overlap reduced by partitioning the frequency range used. The diel and seasonal niche breadth of specific call activity varied according to the local temperature regime at different altitudes representing the variable part of the acoustic niche. We conclude that communities are indeed species-saturated and acoustic niches differ primarily by the fixed call features remaining locally adaptable by the modulation of the call activity pattern, corroborating the predictions of the stochastic niche theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrich Sinsch
- Institute of Integrated Sciences, Department of Biology, University of Koblenz, D-56070 Koblenz, Germany;
| | - Deogratias Tuyisingize
- Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Ellen DeGeneres Campus, Kinigi P.O. Box 105, Rwanda; (D.T.); (Y.v.d.H.)
| | - Jonas Maximilian Dehling
- Institute of Integrated Sciences, Department of Biology, University of Koblenz, D-56070 Koblenz, Germany;
| | - Yntze van der Hoek
- Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Ellen DeGeneres Campus, Kinigi P.O. Box 105, Rwanda; (D.T.); (Y.v.d.H.)
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Alcocer I, Lima H, Sugai LSM, Llusia D. Acoustic indices as proxies for biodiversity: a meta-analysis. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2022; 97:2209-2236. [PMID: 35978471 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12890] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Revised: 07/08/2022] [Accepted: 07/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
As biodiversity decreases worldwide, the development of effective techniques to track changes in ecological communities becomes an urgent challenge. Together with other emerging methods in ecology, acoustic indices are increasingly being used as novel tools for rapid biodiversity assessment. These indices are based on mathematical formulae that summarise the acoustic features of audio samples, with the aim of extracting meaningful ecological information from soundscapes. However, the application of this automated method has revealed conflicting results across the literature, with conceptual and empirical controversies regarding its primary assumption: a correlation between acoustic and biological diversity. After more than a decade of research, we still lack a statistically informed synthesis of the power of acoustic indices that elucidates whether they effectively function as proxies for biological diversity. Here, we reviewed studies testing the relationship between diversity metrics (species abundance, species richness, species diversity, abundance of sounds, and diversity of sounds) and the 11 most commonly used acoustic indices. From 34 studies, we extracted 364 effect sizes that quantified the magnitude of the direct link between acoustic and biological estimates and conducted a meta-analysis. Overall, acoustic indices had a moderate positive relationship with the diversity metrics (r = 0.33, CI [0.23, 0.43]), and showed an inconsistent performance, with highly variable effect sizes both within and among studies. Over time, studies have been increasingly disregarding the validation of the acoustic estimates and those examining this link have been progressively reporting smaller effect sizes. Some of the studied indices [acoustic entropy index (H), normalised difference soundscape index (NDSI), and acoustic complexity index (ACI)] performed better in retrieving biological information, with abundance of sounds (number of sounds from identified or unidentified species) being the best estimated diversity facet of local communities. We found no effect of the type of monitored environment (terrestrial versus aquatic) and the procedure for extracting biological information (acoustic versus non-acoustic) on the performance of acoustic indices, suggesting certain potential to generalise their application across research contexts. We also identified common statistical issues and knowledge gaps that remain to be addressed in future research, such as a high rate of pseudoreplication and multiple unexplored combinations of metrics, taxa, and regions. Our findings confirm the limitations of acoustic indices to efficiently quantify alpha biodiversity and highlight that caution is necessary when using them as surrogates of diversity metrics, especially if employed as single predictors. Although these tools are able partially to capture changes in diversity metrics, endorsing to some extent the rationale behind acoustic indices and suggesting them as promising bases for future developments, they are far from being direct proxies for biodiversity. To guide more efficient use and future research, we review their principal theoretical and practical shortcomings, as well as prospects and challenges of acoustic indices in biodiversity assessment. Altogether, we provide the first comprehensive and statistically based overview on the relation between acoustic indices and biodiversity and pave the way for a more standardised and informed application for biodiversity monitoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irene Alcocer
- Terrestrial Ecology Group, Departamento de Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin, 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Facultad de Ciencias, Edificio de Biología, 28049, Madrid, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain
| | - Herlander Lima
- Department of Life Sciences, GloCEE Global Change Ecology and Evolution Research Group, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, 28805, Madrid, Spain
| | - Larissa Sayuri Moreira Sugai
- Terrestrial Ecology Group, Departamento de Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin, 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Facultad de Ciencias, Edificio de Biología, 28049, Madrid, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain.,K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY, 14850, USA
| | - Diego Llusia
- Terrestrial Ecology Group, Departamento de Ecología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin, 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Facultad de Ciencias, Edificio de Biología, 28049, Madrid, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/ Darwin 2, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratório de Herpetologia e Comportamento Animal, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Campus Samambaia, CEP 74001-970, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
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Fang K, Tang Y, Zhang B, Fang G. Neural activities in music frogs reveal call variations and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Nidirana. Commun Biol 2022; 5:550. [PMID: 35668095 PMCID: PMC9170687 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03504-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2021] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The characteristics of acoustic signals co-evolve with preferences of the auditory sensory system. However, how the brain perceives call variations and whether it can reveal phylogenetic relationships among signalers remains poorly understood. Here, we recorded the neural signals from the Emei music frogs (Nidirana daunchina) in response to broadcasted calls of five different species of the same genus. We found that responses in terms of the different amplitudes of various event-related potential (ERP) components were correlated with diversification trends in acoustic signals, as well as phylogenetic relationships between N. daunchina and heterospecific callers. Specifically, P2 decreased gradually along the ordinal decline of similarities in acoustic characteristics of calls compared with those from conspecifics. Moreover, P3a amplitudes showed increasing trends in correspondence with callers' genetic distances from the subject species. These observations collectively support the view that neural activities in music frogs can reflect call variations and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Nidirana.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ke Fang
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.9 Section 4, Renmin Nan Road, 610041, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- School of Life Science, Anhui University, No. 111 Jiulong Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui, China
- Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, No. 29 Yudao Street, 210016, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yezhong Tang
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.9 Section 4, Renmin Nan Road, 610041, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Baowei Zhang
- School of Life Science, Anhui University, No. 111 Jiulong Road, 230601, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Guangzhan Fang
- Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.9 Section 4, Renmin Nan Road, 610041, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
- Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, No. 1 Shida Road, 637009, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
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Allen-Ankins S, Schwarzkopf L. Using citizen science to test for acoustic niche partitioning in frogs. Sci Rep 2022; 12:2447. [PMID: 35165349 PMCID: PMC8844063 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-06396-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 01/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The acoustic niche hypothesis proposes that to avoid interference with breeding signals, vocal species should evolve to partition acoustic space, minimising similarity with co-occurring signals. Tests of the acoustic niche hypothesis are typically conducted using a single assemblage, with mixed outcomes, but if the process is evolutionarily important, a pattern of reduced acoustic competition should emerge, on average, over many communities. Using a continental-scale dataset derived from audio recordings collected by citizen scientists, we show that frogs do partition acoustic space. Differences in calls were predominately caused by differences in spectral, rather than temporal, features. Specifically, the 90% frequency bandwidths of observed frog assemblages overlapped less than expected, and there was greater distance between dominant frequencies than expected. To our knowledge, this study is the first to use null models to test for acoustic niche partitioning over a large geographic scale.
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Duarte MHL, Llusia D, Rodrigues SS, Nascimento LB. Structure and dynamics of mixed‐species choruses in a tropical anuran assemblage: insights from network analysis. Ethology 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marina H. L. Duarte
- Museum of Natural Sciences Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Brazil
- Post‐Graduate Program of Vertebrate Biology Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Brazil
| | - Diego Llusia
- Terrestrial Ecology Group (TEG) Department of Ecology Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Madrid Spain
- Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (CIBC‐UAM) Madrid Spain
- Programa de Pós‐ Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução (PPGECOEVOL) Laboratório de Herpetologia e Comportamento Animal (LHCAN) Instituto de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade Federal de Goiás (UFG) Goiânia Brazil
| | - Samuel S. Rodrigues
- Museum of Natural Sciences Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Brazil
- Institute of Biological Sciences Federal University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Brazil
| | - Luciana B. Nascimento
- Museum of Natural Sciences Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Brazil
- Post‐Graduate Program of Vertebrate Biology Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Brazil
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Chhaya V, Lahiri S, Jagan MA, Mohan R, Pathaw NA, Krishnan A. Community Bioacoustics: Studying Acoustic Community Structure for Ecological and Conservation Insights. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.706445] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The diversity of animal acoustic signals has evolved due to multiple ecological processes, both biotic and abiotic. At the level of communities of signaling animals, these processes may lead to diverse outcomes, including partitioning of acoustic signals along multiple axes (divergent signal parameters, signaling locations, and timing). Acoustic data provides information on the organization, diversity and dynamics of an acoustic community, and thus enables study of ecological change and turnover in a non-intrusive way. In this review, we lay out how community bioacoustics (the study of acoustic community structure and dynamics), has value in ecological monitoring and conservation of diverse landscapes and taxa. First, we review the concepts of signal space, signal partitioning and their effects on the structure of acoustic communities. Next, we highlight how spatiotemporal ecological change is reflected in acoustic community structure, and the potential this presents in monitoring and conservation. As passive acoustic monitoring gains popularity worldwide, we propose that the analytical framework of community bioacoustics has promise in studying the response of entire suites of species (from insects to large whales) to rapid anthropogenic change.
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Sugai LSM, Llusia D, Siqueira T, Silva TSF. Revisiting the drivers of acoustic similarities in tropical anuran assemblages. Ecology 2021; 102:e03380. [PMID: 33937979 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Revised: 02/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Acoustic signaling is key in mediating mate choice, which directly impacts individual fitness. Because background noise and habitat structure can impair signal transmission, the acoustic space of mixed-species assemblages has long been hypothesized to reflect selective pressures against signal interference and degradation. However, other potential drivers that received far less attention can drive similar outputs on the acoustic space. Phylogenetic niche conservatism and allometric constraints may also modulate species acoustic features, and the acoustic space of communities could be a side-effect of ecological assembly processes involving other traits (e.g., environmental filtering). Additionally, the acoustic space can also reflect the sorting of species relying on public information through extended communication networks. Using an integrative approach, we revisit the potential drivers of the acoustic space by addressing the distribution of acoustic traits, body size, and phylogenetic relatedness in tropical anuran assemblages across gradients of environmental heterogeneity in the Pantanal wetlands. We found the overall acoustic space to be aggregated compared with null expectations, even when accounting for confounding effects of body size. Across assemblages, acoustic and phylogenetic differences were positively related, while acoustic and body size similarities were negatively related, although to a minor extent. We suggest that acoustic partitioning, acoustic adaptation, and allometric constraints play a minor role in shaping the acoustic output of tropical anuran assemblages and that phylogenetic niche conservatism and public information use would influence between-assemblage variation. Our findings highlight an overlooked multivariate nature of the acoustic dimension and underscore the importance of including the ecological context of communities to understand drivers of the acoustic space.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larissa Sayuri Moreira Sugai
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Rio Claro, São Paulo, 13506-900, Brazil.,Terrestrial Ecology Group (TEG), Departamento de Ecología, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin, 2, Edificio de Biología, C-211, Madrid, 28049, Spain
| | - Diego Llusia
- Terrestrial Ecology Group (TEG), Departamento de Ecología, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin, 2, Edificio de Biología, C-211, Madrid, 28049, Spain.,Laboratório de Herpetologia e Comportamento Animal, Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Campus Samambaia, Goiânia, Goiás, CEP, 74001-970, Brazil.,Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global, Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, C/Darwin 2, Madrid, E-28049, Spain
| | - Tadeu Siqueira
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Rio Claro, São Paulo, 13506-900, Brazil
| | - Thiago S F Silva
- Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Rio Claro, São Paulo, 13506-900, Brazil.,Biological and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom
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