Estimation of biodiversity is notoriously time consuming. Recent research has suggested that soundscape diversity can serve as an emergent measure of ecological and evolutionary diversity, and one that can easily be measured. However, few studies have examined the relationship between soundscape diversity and other measures of diversity. The current effort seeks to determine how biological soundscapes vary as communities establish, mature and age, and how they relate to species diversity. We focus on the model system provided by the youngest island of the Hawaiian chain which presents a linear arrangement of habitats of decreasing substrate age, the youngest still actively volcanic. Overall diversity across this chronosequence increases over time as species colonize and adapt. This study set out to determine whether the biotic soundscape diversity matched traditional diversity metrics. Soundscape recordings were taken at eight sites ranging from 42 to 500,000 years old. After filtering anthropogenic and geophysical sounds, the acoustic diversity index was calculated from the recordings to determine soundscape diversity.
Results/Conclusions
The results suggest that older sites have higher biotic soundscape diversity, matching changes in other biodiversity metrics across the chronosequence. The preliminary conclusion is that soundscape diversity does indeed reflect biodiversity patterns and provides a novel and rapid means for biodiversity assessment.