Ecology, Field Methods, Statistical methods

Using citizen science photos to perform phenological studies

Post provided by Yves P. Klinger (he/him)

Photos collected by citizen scientists are a rich source of information that is still relatively unexplored. Phenology, the study of recurring biological events, could make use of photos taken by citizen scientists at different times, but accessing and preparing the plethora of publicly available data is challenging. In this post, Yves P. Klinger describes the motivation behind developing a workflow for using citizen science photos for phenological research, as featured in the paper “iPhenology – using open-access citizen science photos to track phenology at continental scale”.

Ben WhittakerMay 22, 2023May 22, 2023Leave a comment

Field Methods

Reconsidering how we measure forests with LiDAR

Post provided by Jeff W. Atkins (he/him)

Ecological researchers have adopted light detection and ranging (LiDAR) as a means of quantifying ecosystem structure over the past 25+ years. This is especially true in forest-related research, as LiDAR provides the ability to estimate ecosystem structure with incredibly fine detail, over broad areas. LiDAR can work at the scale of individual trees—for example crown delineation algorithms that identify singular tree canopies—or the stand-level with aggregate structural metrics. In this blog post, Jeff shares insight from he and his co-author’s recent publication “Scale dependency of LiDA R -derived forest structural diversity,” which proposes that using LiDAR requires statistical reassessment to ensure we are measuring what we think we are.

Ben WhittakerFebruary 16, 2023February 14, 20231 Comment

Field Methods, Statistical methods

How to weigh a whale

Post provided by Nathan Hirtle (he/him)

A whale’s size not only provides information on its own health, but also the status of the marine ecosystem in which it lives. So how do scientists weigh the biggest creatures on planet? In this blog post, Nathan Hirtle shares insight from his recent paper on measuring the volume of whales using drone images.

Ben WhittakerFebruary 1, 2023January 25, 20231 Comment

Conservation and management, Field Methods

Understanding climate change through animal song

Post provided by Diego Llusia (he/him), Camille Desjonquères (she/her) and Sara Víllen-Peréz (she/her)

Many species produce sound as a means of communication, emitting calls or songs to broadcast information to others in the surrounding area. In this blog post, Diego Llusia, Camille Desjonquères, and Sara Víllen-Peréz discuss their research on recording animal calls and how these soundtracks can be used to help monitor the impacts of climate change.

Ben WhittakerOctober 10, 20221 Comment

Field Methods

ATLAS: a regional-scale tracking system

Post provided by Christine Beardsworth

Tracking the movement of animals is important for informing conservation practices but can present logistical obstacles, especially when attempting to track smaller species with large GPS tags. Using existing technologies in new ways may help overcome these obstacles and provide alternative approaches for accurately tracking large numbers of relatively small sized species. In this blog post, Christine Beardsworth discusses findings from her recent Methods in Ecology and Evolution paper “Validating ATLAS: a regional-scale, high-throughput tracking system”.

Ben WhittakerJune 21, 20221 Comment

Conservation and management, Field Methods, Methods papers

Tracking harbour porpoises around gill nets

Post provided by Jamie Macaulay Entanglement in net fisheries (static and drift) is the largest known cause of direct anthropogenic mortality to many small cetacean species, including harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), in UK waters. Despite this, little is known about the behaviour of small cetaceans in proximity to nets. In this blog post, Jamie Macaulay discusses the findings of his Methods in Ecology & Evolution … Continue reading Tracking harbour porpoises around gill nets

Chloe V. RobinsonMay 10, 2022May 10, 2022Leave a comment

Field Methods, Practical Tools

How do you measure the movement of tiny insects?

Post provided by Yash Sondhi, Hailey Dansby, Angela Nicoletti, Elina Barredo, and Samuel T. Fabian.

Studying animal behaviour or ecology can involve measuring movement patterns of small animals. Observing behaviours like foraging, pollination, circadian activity or predation is laborious because it involves long periods of waiting for the behaviour and triggering a camera or poring over hours of video footage to find the behaviour. Existing automated motion tracking tools for small animals are expensive and unsuitable for field use, or need specific conditions like bright light to work. In this blog post, Yash Sondhi and co-authors discuss their tool “Portable Locomotion Activity Monitor (pLAM)” which enables automated monitoring small animal motion tracking in a cost-effective manner, suitable for lab or field use and can track motion under any light environment.

Ben WhittakerMarch 3, 2022Leave a comment

Conservation and management, Ecology, Field Methods, Methods papers

Insect tracking using retroreflective tags

Post provided by Michael Smith Tracking bee movement is anything but an easy task. Electronic tags are often too cumbersome and extensive electronic systems such as radars are costly to deploy. There is a need for a low-cost, low-impact tool, with high spatial resolution for tracking bees, to investigate how far they forage. In this blog post, Michael Smith discusses the development of retroreflective tags … Continue reading Insect tracking using retroreflective tags

Chloe V. RobinsonFebruary 10, 2022Leave a comment

Ecology, Field Methods, Methods papers, Practical Tools

Large drones make a big splash: Using smaller drones to conduct less disruptive wildlife surveys

Post provided by Kayla Kuhlmann

Hoary bat (*Lasiurus cinereus*). Credit: Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez.

Ecologists have started looking into drones as new tools for wildlife surveys, but how can drone disturbance be minimized in order to produce accurate wildlife counts? In this post, Kayla Kuhlmann describes a drone practice to reduce disruption during acoustic bat surveys as featured in the paper “Miniaturization eliminates detectable impacts of drones on bat activity”, recently published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Chloe V. RobinsonFebruary 9, 2022Leave a comment

Methods Blog

Category: Field Methods