Biodiversité

A l'aide de micros, des scientifiques enregistrent les sons des écosystèmes naturels. Après les océans et les forêts, une équipe de l'université de Bristol (Royaume-Uni) a dévoilé le monde sonore mystérieux... des mares de la campagne anglaise. Un "orchestre" étonnant.

Acoustic recording has the potential to scale terrestrial fauna surveys in the same way that remote sensing drove the scaling of vegetation monitoring. To date, acoustic recording has been used to study and monitor individual species at selected sites, primarily threatened or invasive species...

In Foreste Casentinesi National Park, the annual census of Red Deer, based on the vocal rutting monitoring, has become a very important event involving for three days and nights more than 600 volunteers that arrive from all over Italy and abroad, belonging to different categories: wildlife managers, scientists, rangers, students, hunters, environmentalists and ordinary volunteers. All the involved volunteers are requested to spend many hours in the night outside. They are divided in couples, listening to rutting deer and registering data. During the days, they attend seminars, training lessons and moments of conviviality. The original goal of monitoring the Red Deer population for managing purposes is now accompanied by other important objectives: removal of cultural barriers between people from very different cultural and social backgrounds about nature conservation; nature tourism opportunity; social experience, creating a strong feeling with the Park.

During January 2020, the British Antarctic Survey’s wild water whales team have been conducting surveys for southern right whales all around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. The expedition is composed of ten international experts from five countries (the UK, USA, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand) and includes marine mammal observers, photo-ID specialists, geneticists, acousticians, a drone pilot and an expert in satellite tagging. The wild water whales expedition is running for 33 days on New Zealand research vessel the R/V Braveheart.

En partenariat avec le Muséum d’Histoire naturelle de Paris, la startup Birdz compte les insectes, les oiseaux et les chauves-souris de la Métropole Rouen Normandie pour faire un constat de l’état de la biodiversité.

L'atmosphère acoustique des récifs coralliens livre des informations déterminantes sur leur santé. Mais une part de ces données est inaccessible à l'oreille humaine. En mobilisant des algorithmes, des biologistes viennent de produire un outil qui sera utile pour protéger ces écosystèmes.