Date of Award:

8-2020

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Wildland Resources

Committee Chair(s)

Karen H. Beard

Committee

Karen H. Beard

Committee

Jordan W. Smith

Committee

Thomas C. Edwards

Committee

Xiaojun Qi

Committee

Kezia Manlove

Abstract

Tropical regions host most of the biodiversity found on Earth, but these species-rich areas are constantly threatened by human development and other disturbances that put this diversity of life forms at risk. To avoid extirpations of animal and plant species, scientists and managers rely on accurate monitoring techniques to retrieve information about population trends. This task is not easy, especially in the tropics, where there is often a lack of personnel to conduct surveys, a lack of funding, and the areas are so extensive that many countries need to be involved in monitoring (e.g., Amazon biome). For this reason, scientists are trying to take advantage of technological advancements to develop more cost-effective alternatives for multi-taxa surveys. While satellite imagery provides a richness of information about vegetation, it fails to provide direct measurement of the fauna. In this dissertation conducted in the Brazilian Amazon, I used passive acoustic recorders as a technique to collect reliable and verifiable information about the fauna. I show that the data collected with passive acoustic sensors is able to provide information about how the biodiversity of the Amazon changes with human disturbances, time of the day, and in different environments.

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5d191165e0c83485b89feece2d371f0c

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