This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information.

Wildlife

Researchers tracking climate change with sound

  • Apr 25, 2016
  • 292 words
  • 2 minutes
Yellow rails are among the species researchers are tracking using bioacoustics Expand Image
Advertisement

Researchers at the University of Alberta are relying on sound rather than sight to monitor the effects of climate change on more than 230 species of wildlife in the province.

The university’s bioacoustic unit is using automated recording units to capture the sounds of animals such as birds and amphibians, which means it can monitor the status of a species in a particular area and over time.

“Technology has changed the way we survey for wildlife,” says Erin Bayne, the unit’s co-director and an associate professor in the university’s department of biological sciences. “In the past, we needed to put a person out in the field, but now we can be there at all times. If it makes a sound, we can track it. This can give us a whole new insight into animal behaviors.”

The recording technology will also allow researchers to track entire populations. “We can put the units in the field in February, before any animals arrive, and that way we can track their migration timing,” says Bayne. “We’re going to see migrating animals decline because they can’t keep up with climate change.”

Bayne started the bioacoustic project while monitoring yellow rails, a small, rare bird known for only singing at night, which makes it difficult to track. So he developed a recording technology to study the bird without being in the field.

The bioacoustic unit’s goal is not only to record species such as the yellow rail, but also identify each sound for an online public library. But doing so is going to be a long, challenging process.”We’re currently trying to get our computers to recognize the sounds,” says Bayne. “We’re training the software to recognize new animals, one species at a time.”

Advertisement

Are you passionate about Canadian geography?

You can support Canadian Geographic in 3 ways:

Climate Change Solutions

This story is from the June 2016 Issue

Related Content

Wildlife

Bioacoustics: What nature’s sounds can tell us about the health of our world

Recording the soundscapes of our ecosystems is a burgeoning field that allows researchers to better decode what the Earth is saying. But are we listening?  

  • 3792 words
  • 16 minutes
leather sea stars

Environment

“We did this:” Is there a way out of our intertwined climate and biodiversity crises?

As the impacts of global warming become increasingly evident, the connections to biodiversity loss are hard to ignore. Can this fall’s two key international climate conferences point us to a nature-positive future?

  • 5595 words
  • 23 minutes
mountain ridge snow trees

Environment

New framework identifies climate change “refugia” in boreal forest

A major research project from the University of Alberta outlines pockets of Canada's boreal forest that may give wildlife more time and space to adjust to a changing climate

  • 1011 words
  • 5 minutes
illegal wildlife trade, elephant foot, ivory, biodiversity

Wildlife

The illegal wildlife trade is a biodiversity apocalypse

An estimated annual $175-billion business, the illegal trade in wildlife is the world’s fourth-largest criminal enterprise. It stands to radically alter the animal kingdom.

  • 3405 words
  • 14 minutes