@article {57648, title = {Using acoustic metrics to characterize underwater acoustic biodiversity in the Southern Ocean}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

Acoustic metrics (AM) assist our interpretation of acoustic environments by aggregating a complex signal into a unique number. Numerous AM have been developed for terrestrial ecosystems, with applications ranging from rapid biodiversity assessments to characterizing habitat quality. However, there has been comparatively little research aimed at understanding how these metrics perform to characterize the acoustic features of marine habitats and their relation with ecosystem biodiversity. Our objectives were to 1) assess whether AM are able to capture the spectral and temporal differences between two distinct Antarctic marine acoustic environment types (i.e., pelagic vs. on-shelf), 2) evaluate the performance of a combination of AM compared to the signal full frequency spectrum to characterize marine mammals acoustic assemblages (i.e., species richness\–SR\–and species identity) and 3) estimate the contribution of SR to the local marine acoustic heterogeneity measured by single AM. We used 23 different AM to develop a supervised machine learning approach to discriminate between acoustic environments. AM performance was similar to the full spectrum, achieving correct classifications for SR levels of 58\% and 92\% for pelagic and on-shelf sites respectively and \> 88\% for species identities. Our analyses show that a combination of AM is a promising approach to characterize marine acoustic communities. It allows an intuitive ecological interpretation of passive acoustic data, which in the light of ongoing environmental changes, supports the holistic approach needed to detect and understand trends in species diversity, acoustic communities and underwater habitat quality.

}, keywords = {Acoustic metrics, Antarctic, community composition, marine acoustic environments, passive acoustic monitoring, species diversity}, doi = {10.1002/rse2.129}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rse2.129}, author = {Roca, Irene T. and Van Opzeeland, Ilse}, editor = {Pettorelli, Nathalie and Quick, Nicola} } @article {57604, title = {Using acoustic metrics to characterize underwater acoustic biodiversity in the Southern Ocean}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

Acoustic metrics (AM) assist our interpretation of acoustic environments by aggregating a complex signal into a unique number. Numerous AM have been developed for terrestrial ecosystems, with applications ranging from rapid bio- diversity assessments to characterizing habitat quality. However, there has been comparatively little research aimed at understanding how these metrics perform to characterize the acoustic features of marine habitats and their relation with ecosystem biodiversity. Our objectives were to 1) assess whether AM are able to capture the spectral and temporal differences between two distinct Antarctic marine acoustic environment types (i.e., pelagic vs. on-shelf), 2) evaluate the performance of a combination of AM compared to the signal full frequency spectrum to characterize marine mammals acoustic assemblages (i.e., species richness\–SR\–and species identity) and 3) estimate the contribution of SR to the local marine acoustic heterogeneity measured by single AM. We used 23 differ- ent AM to develop a supervised machine learning approach to discriminate between acoustic environments. AM performance was similar to the full spec- trum, achieving correct classifications for SR levels of 58\% and 92\% for pelagic and on-shelf sites respectively and \> 88\% for species identities. Our analyses show that a combination of AM is a promising approach to characterize marine acoustic communities. It allows an intuitive ecological interpretation of passive acoustic data, which in the light of ongoing environmental changes, supports the holistic approach needed to detect and understand trends in species diver- sity, acoustic communities and underwater habitat quality.

}, keywords = {Acoustic metrics, Antarctic, community composition, marine acoustic environments, passive acoustic monitoring, species diversity}, doi = {10.1002/rse2.129}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rse2.129}, author = {Roca, Irene T. and Van Opzeeland, Ilse}, editor = {Pettorelli, Nathalie and Quick, Nicola} } @article {47964, title = {Description of four new species of Burrowing Frogs in the Fejervarya rufescens complex (Dicroglossidae) with notes on morphological affinities of Fejervarya species in the Western Ghats}, journal = {Zootaxa}, volume = {4277}, year = {2017}, month = {Aug-06-2018}, pages = {451}, abstract = {

The Rufescent Burrowing Frog, Fejervarya rufescens, is thought to have a wide distribution across the Western Ghats in Peninsular India. This locally abundant but secretive species has a short breeding period, making it a challenging subject for field studies. We sampled 16 populations of frogs morphologically similar to F. rufescens in order to understand the variation among populations found across the Western Ghats. Our study shows significant morphological and genetic differences among the sampled populations, suggesting that F. \‘rufescens\’ is a complex of several undescribed species. Using evidence from morphology and genetics, we confirm the presence of five distinct species in this group and formally describe four as new. The new species were delineated using a phylogeny based on three mitochondrial genes (16S, COI and Cytb) and a haplotype network of a nuclear gene (Rag1). Hereafter, the distribution of F. rufescens is restricted to the state of Karnataka and adjoining regions of northern Kerala. Three new species (Fejervarya kadar sp. nov., Fejervarya manoharani sp. nov. and Fejervarya neilcoxi sp. nov.) are from regions south of Palghat gap in the state of Kerala, and one (Fejervarya cepfi sp. nov.) from the northern Western Ghats state of Maharashtra. These findings indicate that Fejervarya frogs of the Western Ghats are more diverse than currently known. Our results will also have implications on the conservation status of F. rufescens, which was previously categorized as Least Concern based on its presumed wide geographical distribution. Furthermore, in order to facilitate a better taxonomic understanding of this region\’s fejervaryan frogs, we divide all the known Fejarvarya species of the Western Ghats into four major groups\—Fejervarya nilagirica group, Fejervarya rufescens group, Fejervarya sahyadris group and Fejervarya syhadrensis group, based on their morphological affinities.

}, keywords = {amphibians, bioacoustics, India, integrative taxonomy, molecular phylogeny, multi-gene DNA barcoding, new species, species diversity, Western Ghats}, issn = {1175-5326}, doi = {10.11646/zootaxa.4277.410.11646/zootaxa.4277.4.1}, url = {https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/issue/view/zootaxa.4277.4https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.4277.4.1}, author = {Sonali Garg and S. D. Biju} }