Improvements to wood frog phenology monitoring using bioacoustic methods
Balantic CM . 2025. Improvements to wood frog phenology monitoring using bioacoustic methods. National Park Service. Fort Collins, CO
Technical assistance report in association with TAR #33350. The Central Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network (CAKN) has conducted passive acoustic monitoring at eight sites from 2011-present to track the timing of wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) breeding based on calling activity. These data enable investigation of how calling activity relates to environmental conditions. The team developed a semi-automated monitoring routine for detecting wood frog calls. The workflow included a time-consuming manual review to remove high numbers of false positive detections. CAKN sought methodology from the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division (NSNSD) to reduce manual review time while retaining enough information to adequately characterize wood frog calling trends. To solve this challenge, we report on a new workflow comparing CAKN’s original wood frog detection methodology with the wood frog detector included in the open-source machine learning tool BirdNET.
- Type
- Technical Assistance Report
- Authors
- Balantic, Cathleen
- Date of Issue
- 2025-03-10
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CAKN , DENA , WRST , YUCH
- Keywords
- Acoustics, Amphibian, Audio Recorder, Bioacoustics, Detection Theory, Measurement, Natural Sounds, Occupancy, Passive Acoustic Monitoring, Phenology
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Amphibians and Reptiles