Humanity has profoundly altered the biosphere in many ways. Pervasive human activities have resulted in the perturbation of the main biogeochemical processes and the massive transformation of the land surface on Earth, leading to the massive loss of biological diversity. It has been suggested that new advances in a combination of acoustic sensor technology and wireless sensor networks will provide a great deal of the spatially dense, near-real time biological observations in ways that were previously inaccessible to ecologists and environmental scientists. An Ecological Acoustic Sensor Observatory System (EASOS) developed in the Remote Environmental Assessment Laboratory (REAL) at Michigan State University has provided an online system to enable the science community and the public to hear sounds, visualize acoustic patterns, and interpret acoustic information for a specific ecosystem selected by users in near-real time (http://www.real.msu.edu). This poster describes the design, development, field deployment and applications of EASOS, and illustrates the process through a case study in the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites at W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) where observations were successfully transferred to the observatory so that acoustic samples can be analyzed and visualized.
 

Four research themes underpin the Ecological Acoustic Sensor Observatory System (EASOS): 1) Sensor technologies, 2) Data stewardship, 3) Ecosystem assessment, and 4) Soundscape interpretation. The case study illustrated the deployment of 12 Habitat Sensor Platforms and one Habitat Server System within the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites at W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) in June 2007. Acoustic Habitat Quality Index (AHQI) values were significantly in different habitat types over time of day. The highest AHQI values occurred within the poplar plots between 0530 and 0700 hrs in June, 2007. This study presents the initial establishment of the EASOS by integrating acoustic sensor technology, wireless sensor networks, and ecological applications using field acoustic recordings as an environmental indicator. The EASOS provides a new assessment tool in ecology and environmental science and should provide tremendous opportunities to measure and monitor complex ecological variables at relevant spatial and temporal scales.