Parameters determining the suitability of bat species for acoustic monitoring

Acoustic monitoring of bats is increasingly used in biodiversity assessments, population monitoring, and environmental impact assessments. In addition to accurate species identification, additional factors make it challenging to derive population trends or better sizes based on acoustic monitoring. Inter- and intra-species- as well as individual variation of acoustic parameters and acoustic activity result in varying detection probabilities. Changes in environmental conditions result in large changes in the volume monitored by the device. Differences in the devices used for acoustic monitoring make it inherently difficult to compare data collected with different devices. The single call monitoring volume is modelled for bats belonging to different guilds under consideration of the different call parameters such as call intensity, frequency, and directionality. By broadcasting bat echolocation calls from various distances to monitoring devices, the acoustic parameters influencing the successful detection o...