Biology subjects

Rountree, R. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Rountree, R. A..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Overcoming software bottlenecks for scalable passive acoustic monitoring: insights from a global expert assessment

1.Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) enables non-invasive sampling of wildlife across broad spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales. Its ongoing and widespread use has generated unprecedented volumes of acoustic data, shifting the primary bottleneck from data collection to the storage, processing, integration, and interpretation of PAM outputs. Although many software tools exist to address these challenges, differences in their design, scope, and usability often create fragmented and complex analytical workflows. To identify the key barriers and opportunities shaping the implementation of PAM surveys, we conducted a structured expert solicitation involving 30 international practitioners working across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Experts identified and ranked their most critical pain points in current PAM workflows, spanning data storage, processing, and interpretation. The top challenge identified related to accurate species identification using deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) models, especially in noisy soundscapes or for underrepresented taxa. Eight additional priority challenges included workflow fragmentation, limited availability of user-friendly analytical and visualisation tools, uneven access to software, manual validation bottlenecks, computational constraints, and difficulties in data handling, standardisation, and sharing. Participants also proposed practical mitigation strategies for these priority challenges, supported by step-by-step guidance to help overcome key barriers. Together, these insights provide a roadmap toward more scalable, open-access, and collaborative software systems, which are increasingly essential to realise the full potential of PAM in global biodiversity monitoring.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Freshwater soundscapes: a cacophony of undescribed biological sounds now threatened by anthropogenic noise

The soundscape composition of freshwater habitats is poorly understood. Our goal was to document the occurrence of biological sounds in a large variety of freshwater habitats over a large geographic area. The underwater soundscape was sampled in freshwater habitat categorized as brook/creek, pond/lake, or river, from five major river systems in North America (Connecticut, Kennebec, Merrimack, Presumpscot, and Saco) over a five-week period in the spring of 2008. Over 7,000 sounds were measured from 2,750 minutes of recording in 173 locations, and classified into major anthropophony (airplane, boat, traffic, train and other noise) and biophony (fish air movement, also known as air passage, other fish, insect-like, bird, and other biological) sound categories. Anthropogenic noise dominated the soundscape of all habitats averaging 15 % of time per recording compared to less than 2 % for biological sounds. Anthropophony occurred in 79 % of recordings and was mainly due to traffic and boat sounds, which exhibited significant differences among habitats and between non-tidal and tidal river regions. Most biophonic sounds were from unidentified insect-like, air movement fish, and other fish sound sources that occurred in 57 % of recordings. Mean frequencies of anthropogenic noises overlapped strongly with the biophony, and comparisons of spectra suggest that insect- like and air movement sounds may be more susceptible to masking than other fish sounds. There was a significant decline in biodiversity and biophony with increasing ambient sound levels. Our poor understanding of the biophony of freshwater ecosystems, together with an apparent high temporal exposure to anthropogenic noise across all habitats, suggest a critical need for studies aimed at identification of biophonic sound sources and assessment of potential threats from anthropogenic noises.

ecology↗