View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UCL Discovery Received: 29 April 2018 | Accepted: 20 September 2018 DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13101 REVIEW Emerging opportunities and challenges for passive acoustics in ecological assessment and monitoring Rory Gibb1* | Ella Browning1,2* | Paul Glover-Kapfer3,4 | Kate E. Jones1,2 1Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, Centre for Biodiversity and Abstract Environment Research, University College 1. High-throughput environmental sensing technologies are increasingly central to London, London, UK global monitoring of the ecological impacts of human activities. In particular, the 2Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK recent boom in passive acoustic sensors has provided efficient, noninvasive, and 3WWF-UK, Living Planet Centre, Woking, taxonomically broad means to study wildlife populations and communities, and UK monitor their responses to environmental change. However, until recently, tech- 4 Flora & Fauna International, David nological costs and constraints have largely confined research in passive acoustic Attenborough Building, Cambridge, UK monitoring (PAM) to a handful of taxonomic groups (e.g., bats, cetaceans, birds), Correspondence often in relatively small-scale, proof-of-concept studies. Kate E. Jones Email:
[email protected] 2. The arrival of low-cost, open-source sensors is now rapidly expanding access to PAM technologies, making it vital to evaluate where these tools can contribute to Funding information Engineering and Physical Sciences Research broader efforts in ecology and biodiversity research. Here, we synthesise and Council, Grant/Award Number: EP/ critically assess the current emerging opportunities and challenges for PAM for K503745/1; World Wildlife Fund; Natural Environment Research Council, Grant/ ecological assessment and monitoring of both species populations and Award Number: NE/P016677/1 communities.