A set of guidelines has been compiled to bring consistency and good-practice to the application of acoustic monitoring for assessing biodiversity, habitat health and environmental change. Based on peer reviewed literature, the guidance - Good Practice guidelines for long term eco-acoustic monitoring in the UK - enables a crossover between academia and the practical use of bioacoustics in areas such as agri-environment monitoring, Biodiversity Net Gain, habitat creation, rewilding and species conservation. Publishers of the report say the benefits of ecoacoustics are significant, having the advantage of being objective, eliminating surveyor bias, being easily repeatable and the equipment and data is inexpensive.
It is hoped the report will allow ecologists, conservation practitioners, land managers, farmers, and rewilders to use the latest developments in acoustic monitoring to survey the biodiversity on their land and monitor changes. This guidance is timely, given recent announcements about grants for farmers to manage their land for wildlife, the requirements to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain and the increasing popularity of rewilding solutions.
The guidelines are focussed on the use of ecoacoustic monitoring of audible sounds within terrestrial, temperate ecosystems typical of the UK and elsewhere in Europe. They deliberately do not cover the ultrasonic frequencies of bats, or the marine environment, as these protocols exist elsewhere.
The co-production of these guidelines follows a UK Acoustic Network ecoacoustics symposium in June 2022. It was funded by the UK Acoustics Network and a product of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Manchester Metropolitan University and Baker Consultants.
Download the guidelines here
