02898nas a2200217   4500008004100000245018100041210006900222520208500291653001102376653001702387653001502404653001702419653003202436100002802468700001902496700001902515700002702534700002502561700002702586856006702613       2019                        eng d00aStronger together: Combining automated classifiers with manual post-validation optimizes the workload vs reliability trade-off of species identification in bat acoustic surveys0 aStronger together Combining automated classifiers with manual po3 a<p>Owing to major technological advances, bioacoustics has become a burgeoning field in ecological research worldwide. Autonomous passive acoustic recorders are becoming widely used to monitor aerial insectivorous bats, and automatic classifiers have emerged to aid researchers in the daunting task of analysing the resulting massive acoustic datasets. However, the scarcity of comprehensive reference call libraries still hampers their wider application in highly diverse tropical assemblages. Capitalizing on a unique acoustic dataset of &gt;650,000 bat call sequences collected over a 3-year period in the Brazilian Amazon, the aims of this study were (a) to assess how pre-identified recordings of free-flying and hand-released bats could be used to train an automatic classification algorithm (random forest), and (b) to optimize acoustic analysis protocols by combining automatic classification with visual post-validation, whereby we evaluated the proportion of sound files to be post-validated for different thresholds of classification accuracy. Classifiers were trained at species or sonotype (group of species with similar calls) level. Random forest models confirmed the reliability of using calls of both free-flying and hand-released bats to train custom-built automatic classifiers. To achieve a general classification accuracy of ~85%, random forest had to be trained with at least 500 pulses per species/sonotype. For seven out of 20 sonotypes, the most abundant in our dataset, we obtained high classification accuracy (&gt;90%). Adopting a desired accuracy probability threshold of 95% for the random forest classifier, we found that the percentage of sound files required for manual post-validation could be reduced by up to 75%, a significant saving in terms of workload. Combining automatic classification with manual ID through fully customizable classifiers implemented in open-source software as demonstrated here shows great potential to help overcome the acknowledged risks and biases associated with the sole reliance on automatic classification.</p>
10aAmazon10abioacoustics10aChiroptera10aecholocation10aMachine-learning algorithms1 aLópez-Baucells, Adrià1 aTorrent, Laura1 aRocha, Ricardo1 aBobrowiec, Paulo, E.D.1 aPalmeirim, Jorge, M.1 aMeyer, Christoph, F.J.  uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S157495411830023203117nas a2200241   4500008004100000022001300041245018100054210006900235260001600304520208500320653001102405653001702416653001502433653001702448653003202465100002802497700001902525700001902544700002702563700002502590700002702615856023302642       2018                        eng d  a1574954100aStronger together: Combining automated classifiers with manual post-validation optimizes the workload vs reliability trade-off of species identification in bat acoustic surveys0 aStronger together Combining automated classifiers with manual po  cJan-11-20183 a<p>Owing to major technological advances, bioacoustics has become a burgeoning field in ecological research worldwide. Autonomous passive acoustic recorders are becoming widely used to monitor aerial insectivorous bats, and automatic classifiers have emerged to aid researchers in the daunting task of analysing the resulting massive acoustic datasets. However, the scarcity of comprehensive reference call libraries still hampers their wider application in highly diverse tropical assemblages. Capitalizing on a unique acoustic dataset of &gt;650,000 bat call sequences collected over a 3-year period in the Brazilian Amazon, the aims of this study were (a) to assess how pre-identified recordings of free-flying and hand-released bats could be used to train an automatic classification algorithm (random forest), and (b) to optimize acoustic analysis protocols by combining automatic classification with visual post-validation, whereby we evaluated the proportion of sound files to be post-validated for different thresholds of classification accuracy. Classifiers were trained at species or sonotype (group of species with similar calls) level. Random forest models confirmed the reliability of using calls of both free-flying and hand-released bats to train custom-built automatic classifiers. To achieve a general classification accuracy of ~85%, random forest had to be trained with at least 500 pulses per species/sonotype. For seven out of 20 sonotypes, the most abundant in our dataset, we obtained high classification accuracy (&gt;90%). Adopting a desired accuracy probability threshold of 95% for the random forest classifier, we found that the percentage of sound files required for manual post-validation could be reduced by up to 75%, a significant saving in terms of workload. Combining automatic classification with manual ID through fully customizable classifiers implemented in open-source software as demonstrated here shows great potential to help overcome the acknowledged risks and biases associated with the sole reliance on automatic classification.</p>
10aAmazon10abioacoustics10aChiroptera10aecholocation10aMachine-learning algorithms1 aLópez-Baucells, Adrià1 aTorrent, Laura1 aRocha, Ricardo1 aBobrowiec, Paulo, E.D.1 aPalmeirim, Jorge, M.1 aMeyer, Christoph, F.J.  uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1574954118300232https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S1574954118300232?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S1574954118300232?httpAccept=text/plain