Impact of acoustic index parameters on soundscape comparisons

作者：James Kemp, Juan Carlos Azofeifa‐Solano, Diego R. Barneche, Rohan M. Brooker, J. Edgardo Arévalo, Christine Erbe, Miles Parsons · 发表于：Methods in Ecology and Evolution · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1111/2041-210x.70007 · 被引用次数：14 · 研究领域：Noise Effects and Management、Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior、Acoustic Wave Phenomena Research

Abstract Unprecedented ecosystem changes have prompted prioritisation of scalable and informative environmental monitoring. Ecoacoustics derives information from passive acoustic monitoring of soundscapes as a proxy to describe ecological processes. Ecoacoustic indices are often used to characterise specific aspects of the acoustic environment, for example the Acoustic Diversity Index potentially reflecting local biophony. Increasing application of these indices raises concerns about the ecological relationship between the soundscape and the index values. The need to quantify their variance against validated ecosystem traits is becoming more appreciated. For several commonly used indices, the impacts of the parameter settings and sampling regimes on output values have not been fully explored, despite the potential to bias results. To address this, we conducted three sensitivity analyses on acoustic index parameters. The first explores raw output from the Acoustic Complexity Index at various parameter settings, on a single recording. The second models the output of four common indices (Bioacoustics Index and Acoustic Complexity, Diversity and Evenness Indexes) using Bayesian mixed effects models on two datasets and explores how comparative differences change with parameter settings. The third explores the effect of the pitch of simulated animal calls on the output of the four indices. The analyses demonstrate that parameter selection alone can influence the magnitude and direc...