A Tale of Two Woodpeckers: Soundscapes Reveal Divergent Responses to Forest Management in the Blue Mountains
On Monday, December 8 , Ben Vernasco, Research Scientist & Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology at Whitman College will discuss how Earth’s biodiversity is currently being transformed by the dramatic changes humans are imposing on the natural world. Passive acoustic monitoring is an emerging field of study that combines simple technologies, rapidly developing neural networks, and quantitative methodologies to measure soundscapes across broad geographic areas and document such changes in ecosystems around the world. In this talk, Professor Vernasco will share his collaborative efforts that combine passive acoustic monitoring, neural networks, remote sensing, and Bayesian hierarchical models to provide an unprecedented level of detail about the bird communities of the Blue Mountains. He will highlight how two ecologically contrasting woodpeckers—one thriving in dense, fire-suppressed forests and the other dependent on large, fire-maintained pines—reveal the lega...