Acoustic monitoring network for birds enhances forest management
by Kathi Borgmann, Cornell University Lab of Ornithology
March 11, 2025
A new study using the largest network of microphones to track birds in the United States is providing crucial insights for managing and restoring fire-prone forests across California’s Sierra Nevada region.
The research, published March 11 in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, demonstrates how emerging bioacoustics technology can enhance wildlife monitoring and forest management.
The study, led by researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and the University of Wisconsin, analyzed more than 700,000 hours of audio recordings from more than 1,600 sites spanning approximately 6 million acres of Sierra Nevada forest.
“The amount of coverage allows us to draw really powerful inferences about what’s happening with species across many different locations,” said lead author Kristin Brunk, a postdoctoral research associate at the Yang Center.
Keep reading: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/03/acoustic-monitoring-network-birds-enhances-forest-management
Read the Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2843