Beyond Presence-Absence: Using passive acoustic surveys to estimate the abundance of Arctic-breeding birds

AOS Research Grant Seminar

Presenter: Morgan Ziegenhorn, Senior Data Scientist and Acoustic Ecologist | Manomet Conservation Sciences, Manomet Conservation Sciences; 2025 Kessel Fellowship winner

Estimating density, rather than presence-absence, remains a major challenge for passive acoustic monitoring. However, density estimates are required to produce population size estimates, which are a prerequisite for effective management of avian species. In this seminar, Dr. Ziegenhorn will present and discuss the challenges, setbacks, and, ultimately, results of a novel method for density estimation that uses a modified version of traditional distance sampling to generate robust density estimates of Arctic-breeding birds from acoustic surveys and deep learning outputs. Ultimately, the development of efficient, automated abundance estimation methods such as this is critical for diversifying the monitoring approaches available for fast-declining bird populations.