Forestry England Passive Acoustic Bat Survey
Bat Conservation Trust
Description
The Forestry England Passive Acoustic Bat Survey collects data from a number of Foresty England sites. Within each site static acoustic sensors (AudioMoths) are deployed at a random stratified sample of monitoring locations, and used to record bat activity over several nights from July - September. Recordings are intially classified to species using the BatDetect2 algorithm. After automatic classification, all records apart from those of Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Pipistrellus pygmaeus and the Myotis species group are manually verified from spectrograms of the recordings. These surveys are funded by Forestry England and coordinated by the Bat Conservation Trust.
Geographic Description
Forestry England sites located across England.
Purpose
Data collected from 2019 & 2021 were part of a scoping study in South West England to investigate the ability of passive acoustic surveys to monitor bat species presence and activity in woodland. Data from 2022 onwards are from baseline surveys of bat species presence and activity from a number of Forestry England sites ahead of 'Forest Wilding' work.
Data quality
All data are collected using a standardised methodology. Audio recordings are uploaded to BCT’s Sound Classification System where they are automatically classified to species or species group using the BatDetect2 algorithm, with an associated measure of classification 'confidence'. Classification output is validated according to classification confidence and geographic location, then all records apart from those of Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Pipistrellus pygmaeus and the Myotis species group are manually verified from spectrograms of the recordings. To ensure the data supplied to the NBN Atlas is of a manageable size, a single record is selected for submission for each species detected at each monitoring location within each site each year.
Methods
Within each site, broad spectrum acoustic sensors (AudioMoths) are deployed at a random stratified sample of monitoring locations. They are configured to collect eight or nine consecutive nights of recordings using a 384kHz sampling rate, medium gain and a quasi-continuous recording schedule (300 seconds recording, 5 seconds sleeping) without amplitude or frequency filters. The survey runs from July - September. For information about species identification see 'Data Quality'.
Citation
Bat Conservation Trust & Forestry England ([Insert download year]). Forestry England Passive Acoustic Bat Survey. Occurrence dataset on the NBN Atlas
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Digitised records
Looking up... the number of records that can be accessed through the NBN Atlas. This resource was last checked for updated data on 09 Sep 2024. The most recent data was published on 09 Sep 2024.
Click to view records for the Forestry England Passive Acoustic Bat Survey resource.