AmiBio: Automatic acoustic Monitoring and
Inventorying of BIOdiversity
Todor Ganchev1, Klaus Riede4, Ilyas Potamitis2, Tsenka Stoyanova2, Stavros Ntalampiras1,
Vassiliki Dimitriou3, Basilis Nomikos3, Konstantinos Birkos1, Olaf Jahn4, Nikos Fakotakis1
1University
of Patras, Wire Communications Laboratory (UOP/WCL), 26500 Rion-Patras, Greece
2Technological Educational Institute of Crete (TEIC), Heraklion, Greece
3Association for Protection and Development of Hymettus (SPAY), Athens, Greece
4Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn, Germany
Concept
The on-going AmiBio project† (www.amibio-project.eu) aims to
construct and deploy autonomous multi-sensor surveillance stations
and to automatically analyze the transmitted data for the long-term
monitoring of biodiversity activity trends in the Natura 2000 area
“Hymettus Mountains”, located east of Athens, Attica, Greece.
Data collection and communication framework
Fig. 2. Overall architecture of the data communication framework
The project will deploy a prototype hardware system in characteristic
Mediterranean habitats, such as pine forest, maquis, phrygana, and
calcareous rock cliffs. The stations will gather and wirelessly transmit
recordings of audio and environmental variables to a central station in
Athens for automatic statistical analysis.
The sound-recording stations are small (< 0.5 m3), non-intrusive, and
cost-effective compared to human expeditions in assessing the
biodiversity of an area. Therefore, a systematic seasonal and
longitudinal long-term environmental monitoring is facilitated.
(with 3G functionality)
Fig. 1. The AmiBio concept illustrated by examples of sound recordings. Calls of a
disturbed Marginated Tortoise Testudo marginata and a group of flushed Chukars
Alectoris chukar. The sonagrams show 5-second fragments and a frequency range of 22
kHz.
Fig. 3. Architecture of the remote sound-recording stations (SRS)
Achievements
Exemplary achievements of the first 18 months of the AmiBio project:
1.Archive of 13,300+ reference sound recordings, compiled from online
archives, commercial publications, and AmiBio recordings, for the
176 sound-producing animal species detected in the Hymettus area
and for c. 150 potentially occurring bird species.
2.AmiBio repository of 4,200+ hours of stereo recordings (48 kHz, 16
bit), passively collected at five locations at Hymettus (= 2.6 TB of
audio data).
3.Training library of 1,200+ edited and filtered (“clean”) audio
recordings, which are needed for adjusting the species-specific
sound detectors.
4.Software components for sound activity detection, segmentation of
recordings, and automated acoustic recognition of bird and insect
species.
5.Prototype of the sound-recording stations capable of real-time
transmission of 4-channel audio (including one ultrasonic channel)
over a 3G network.
Expected outcomes
1.Remote automated observation of sound-emitting animals
guarantees a good temporal coverage of an area, and thus facilitates
the cost-effective inventorying and monitoring of its biodiversity as
well as the time-efficient interpretation of the resulting data.
2.Long-term acoustic monitoring of certain species allows to estimate
their population densities and trends, which serve as indicators of
environmental health.
3.Monitoring and alarming about the presence or absence of rare and
threatened species in inaccessible areas as well as of nocturnal taxa.
4.Continuous 24/7 surveillance for specific natural or anthropogenic
sound events indicating danger or crisis situations, such as
gunshots, felling of trees, and fires, which are reported to the
competent authorities for the emergency.
AmiBio partners
6.Baseline conservation plan proposal for the Hymettus Mountains.
†
The AmiBio project (LIFE08 NAT/GR/000539) is implemented with the contribution of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Community. Duration: 01−FEB−2010 to 30−JUN −2013. Total Budget: 1,664,282 €. Life+ Contribution: 830,641 €.