Bradfer‐Lawrence, T. orcid.org/0000-0001-6045-4360, Duthie, B. orcid.org/0000-0001-8343-4995, Abrahams, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-0301-5585 et al. (20 more authors) (2024) The Acoustic Index User's Guide: a practical manual for defining, generating and understanding current and future acoustic indices. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. ISSN 2041-210X
Abstract
1. Ecoacoustics, the study of environmental sound, is a rapidly growing discipline offering ecological insights at scales ranging from individual organisms to whole ecosystems. Substantial methodological developments over the last 15 years have streamlined extraction of ecological information from audio recordings. One widely used set of methods are acoustic indices, which offer numerical summaries of the spectral, temporal and amplitude patterns in audio recordings.
2. Currently, the specifics of each index's background, methodology and the soundscape patterns they are designed to summarise, are spread across multiple sources. Critically, details of index calculation are sometimes scarce, making it challenging for users to understand how index values are generated. Discrepancies in understanding can lead to misuse of acoustic indices or reporting of spurious results. This hinders ecological inference, replicability and discourages adoption of these tools for conservation and ecosystem monitoring, where they might otherwise provide useful insight.
3. Here we present the Acoustic Index User's Guide—an interactive RShiny web app that defines and deconstructs eight of the most commonly used acoustic indices to facilitate consistent application across the discipline. We break the acoustic indices calculations down into easy-to-follow steps to better enable practical application and critical interpretation of acoustic indices. We demonstrate typical soundscape patterns using a suite of 91 example audio recordings: 66 real-world soundscapes from terrestrial, aquatic and subterranean systems around the world, and 25 synthetic files demonstrating archetypal soundscape patterns. Our interpretation figures signpost specific soundscape patterns likely to be reflected in acoustic indices' values.
4. This RShiny app is a living resource; additional acoustic indices will be added in the future through collaboration with authors of pre-existing and new indices. The app also serves as a best-practice template for the information required when publishing new acoustic indices, so that authors can facilitate the widest possible understanding and uptake of their indices. In turn, improved understanding of acoustic indices will aid effective hypothesis generation, application and interpretation in ecological research, ecosystem monitoring and conservation management.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Methods in Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | 4101 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation; 41 Environmental Sciences |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/V007866/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 07 Aug 2024 10:25 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 10:25 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/2041-210x.14357 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:215587 |