EAGER: Censusing via acoustic energy (CVAE) for tracking animal phenology and population size

估计动物种群规模对保护至关重要，尤其是在预测物种如何应对环境变化时。然而，传统的估算人口的方法需要大量的时间、精力和费用，而且通常每年只进行一次。这种方法可能会错过年内的动态。这项研究使用了阿德海默企鹅和洞穴栖息的灰蝙蝠，将开发和测试一种新的方法，利用声音来远程估计群居动物的数量是如何随时间变化的。目标是开发一种新的动物计数方法，减少人工操作，增加种群计数的频率，并改善物种保护的可用数据。该项目还将支持一个科学讲习班，讨论在偏远地区进行低成本人口持续监测的数据需求和新方法。最后，这项研究将包括来自代表性不足群体的学生的本科研究机会。了解时空种群动态，特别是对斑块生境中移动动物的种群动态，可以揭示跨分类群种群调节的基本过程，并有助于预测动物对干扰事件的反应。模型被广泛用于研究种群内部和种群之间的种群动态。这些模型需要人口统计，这通常是在离散的时间段进行的，比如每年的统计。虽然每年的统计足以评估种群对长期新闻事件的反应，但这种方法无法捕捉到特定的或相互关联的种群对短期扰动或脉冲扰动的反应。需要更频繁地监测多个种群，但在偏远栖息地尤其具有挑战性。利用岛上筑巢的海鸟和栖息在洞穴里的蝙蝠，这项研究将验证这样一个假设，即声能指数是对不规则栖息地中移动、发声动物种群规模的可靠估计，并且通过这种非侵入性方法获得的数据可以用来模拟动物对脉冲干扰的反应。如果成功，这种远程监测方法将有利于人口统计学和超种群建模，并有可能彻底改变科学家研究和理解居住在孤立景观中的物种的方式。它还将提供必要的关键数据，以保护那些因人类活动导致种群数量下降的物种。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Estimating animal population sizes is crucial for conservation, especially when predicting how species may respond to changes in their environment. However, traditional methods to estimate populations require significant time, effort and expense, and are often conducted only once per year. This approach is likely to miss within year dynamics. This research, using Adélie penguins and cave roosting gray bats, will develop and test a new method using sound to remotely estimate how the numbers of animals living in groups changes over time. The goal is to develop a new approach to counting animals that reduces hands-on effort, increases the frequency of population counts, and improves data available for species conservation. This project will also support a scientific workshop to discuss data needs and emerging approaches for low-cost continuous population monitoring in remote locations. Lastly, this research will include undergraduate research opportunities for students from under-represented groups. Understanding spatiotemporal population dynamics, especially for mobile animals in patchy habitats, can uncover fundamental processes that regulate populations across taxa and help predict how animals will respond to disturbance events. Models are widely used to study the population dynamics within and among populations. These models require population counts, which are typically conducted in discrete time periods such as yearly counts. Although yearly counts can be adequate for assessing population responses to longer term press events, this approach cannot capture how specific or interconnected populations will respond to short-term perturbations, or pulse disturbances. More frequent monitoring of multiple populations is needed but especially challenging in remote habitats. Using island-nesting seabirds and cave-roosting bats, this research will test the hypothesis that acoustic energy indices are reliable estimates of population sizes for mobile, vocal animals in patchy habitats, and that with the data from this non-invasive approach can be used to model how animals respond to pulse disturbances. If successful, this approach to remote monitoring could benefit demographic and metapopulation modeling, and has the potential to revolutionize how scientists study and understand species that inhabit isolated landscapes. It would also provide critical data needed to protect species experiencing anthropogenic-induced population declines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.