Biology subjects

Meyer, C. F. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Meyer, C. F. J..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Overcoming software bottlenecks for scalable passive acoustic monitoring: insights from a global expert assessment

1.Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) enables non-invasive sampling of wildlife across broad spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales. Its ongoing and widespread use has generated unprecedented volumes of acoustic data, shifting the primary bottleneck from data collection to the storage, processing, integration, and interpretation of PAM outputs. Although many software tools exist to address these challenges, differences in their design, scope, and usability often create fragmented and complex analytical workflows. To identify the key barriers and opportunities shaping the implementation of PAM surveys, we conducted a structured expert solicitation involving 30 international practitioners working across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Experts identified and ranked their most critical pain points in current PAM workflows, spanning data storage, processing, and interpretation. The top challenge identified related to accurate species identification using deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) models, especially in noisy soundscapes or for underrepresented taxa. Eight additional priority challenges included workflow fragmentation, limited availability of user-friendly analytical and visualisation tools, uneven access to software, manual validation bottlenecks, computational constraints, and difficulties in data handling, standardisation, and sharing. Participants also proposed practical mitigation strategies for these priority challenges, supported by step-by-step guidance to help overcome key barriers. Together, these insights provide a roadmap toward more scalable, open-access, and collaborative software systems, which are increasingly essential to realise the full potential of PAM in global biodiversity monitoring.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Erosion of phylogenetic diversity in Neotropical bat assemblages: findings from a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment

The traditional focus on taxonomic diversity metrics for investigating species responses to habitat loss and fragmentation has limited our understanding on how biodiversity is impacted by habitat modification. This is particularly true for taxonomic groups such as bats which exhibit species-specific responses. Here, we investigate phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity of Neotropical bat assemblages across two environmental gradients, one in habitat quality and one in habitat amount. We surveyed bats in 39 sites located across a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment in the Brazilian Amazon, representing a gradient of habitat quality (interior-edge-matrix, hereafter IEM) in both continuous forest and forest fragments of different sizes (1, 10, and 100 ha; forest size gradient). For each habitat category, we quantified alpha and beta phylogenetic diversity, then used linear models and cluster analysis to explore how forest area and IEM gradient affect phylogenetic diversity. We found that the secondary forest matrix harboured significantly lower total evolutionary history compared to the fragment interiors, especially the 1 ha fragments, containing bat assemblages with more closely related species. Forest fragments [≥] 10 ha had levels of phylogenetic richness similar to continuous forest, suggesting that large fragments retain considerable levels of evolutionary history. The edge and matrix adjacent to large fragments tend to have closely related lineages nonetheless, suggesting phylogenetic homogenization in these IEM gradient categories. Thus, despite the high mobility of bats, fragmentation still induces considerable levels of erosion of phylogenetic diversity, suggesting that the various evolutionary history might not be able to persist in present-day human-modified landscapes.

ecology↗