TY  - JOUR
A1  - Müller, Jörg
A1  - Mitesser, Oliver
A1  - Schaefer, H. Martin
A1  - Seibold, Sebastian
A1  - Busse, Annika
A1  - Kriegel, Peter
A1  - Rabl, Dominik
A1  - Gelis, Rudy
A1  - Arteaga, Alejandro
A1  - Freile, Juan
A1  - Leite, Gabriel Augusto
A1  - de Melo, Tomaz Nascimento
A1  - LeBien, Jack
A1  - Campos-Cerqueira, Marconi
A1  - Blüthgen, Nico
A1  - Tremlett, Constance J.
A1  - Böttger, Dennis
A1  - Feldhaar, Heike
A1  - Grella, Nina
A1  - Falconí-López, Ana
A1  - Donoso, David A.
A1  - Moriniere, Jerome
A1  - Buřivalová, Zuzana
T1  - Soundscapes and deep learning enable tracking biodiversity recovery in tropical forests
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Tropical forest recovery is fundamental to addressing the intertwined climate and biodiversity loss crises. While regenerating trees sequester carbon relatively quickly, the pace of biodiversity recovery remains contentious. Here, we use bioacoustics and metabarcoding to measure forest recovery post-agriculture in a global biodiversity hotspot in Ecuador. We show that the community composition, and not species richness, of vocalizing vertebrates identified by experts reflects the restoration gradient. Two automated measures – an acoustic index model and a bird community composition derived from an independently developed Convolutional Neural Network - correlated well with restoration (adj-R² = 0.62 and 0.69, respectively). Importantly, both measures reflected composition of non-vocalizing nocturnal insects identified via metabarcoding. We show that such automated monitoring tools, based on new technologies, can effectively monitor the success of forest recovery, using robust and reproducible data.
KW  - animal behaviour
KW  - conservation biology
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-358130
VL  - 14
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Storms, Mona
A1  - Jakhar, Aryan
A1  - Mitesser, Oliver
A1  - Jechow, Andreas
A1  - Hölker, Franz
A1  - Degen, Tobias
A1  - Hovestadt, Thomas
A1  - Degen, Jacqueline
T1  - The rising moon promotes mate finding in moths
JF  - Communications Biology
N2  - To counteract insect decline, it is essential to understand the underlying causes, especially for key pollinators such as nocturnal moths whose ability to orientate can easily be influenced by ambient light conditions. These comprise natural light sources as well as artificial light, but their specific relevance for moth orientation is still unknown. We investigated the influence of moonlight on the reproductive behavior of privet hawkmoths (Sphinx ligustri) at a relatively dark site where the Milky Way was visible while the horizon was illuminated by distant light sources and skyglow. We show that male moths use the moon for orientation and reach females significantly faster with increasing moon elevation. Furthermore, the choice of flight direction depended on the cardinal position of the moon but not on the illumination of the horizon caused by artificial light, indicating that the moon plays a key role in the orientation of male moths.
KW  - animal behaviour
KW  - biodiversity
KW  - conservation biology
KW  - entomology
KW  - urban ecology
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-301365
VL  - 5
ER  -