Acoustic monitoring network for birds enhances forest management
New technology helps forest managers
image:
Swift recording unit in a burned forest by Kristin Brunk
view moreCredit: Photo by Kristin Brunk.
March 11, 2025
New Technology Helps Forest Managers Protect Birds in California's Sierra Nevada
ITHACA, NY —Scientists have found a new way to track forest birds using thousands of microphones, helping them better protect both wildlife and forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The research, published today in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, demonstrates how emerging bioacoustic technology can enhance wildlife monitoring and forest management.
Researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics analyzed more than 700,000 hours of bird sounds recorded across California's Sierra Nevada. The team deployed microphones at 1,600 sites spanning approximately 6 M acres of Sierra Nevada forest to track 10 important bird species, including owls and woodpeckers, that can tell us about the forest's health.
"The amount of coverage that gives us and the idea of what's happening with species at so many different locations allow for really powerful inference to be drawn from the network," said study lead author Kristin Brunk, a postdoctoral associate at the Yang Center.
Using automatic microphone recording units and BirdNET, a machine-learning algorithm, they analyzed the recordings to identify different bird calls and studied how these birds relate to various forest conditions, such as how many trees are in an area or how dense the forest canopy is—variables that managers commonly use in their planning processes.
This information is particularly valuable now, as forest managers face tough decisions about preventing destructive wildfires while protecting wildlife. The study creates detailed maps showing where different birds are likely to live, helping managers make better-informed decisions about where to thin forests or conduct controlled burns.
"We're able to understand bird populations in the context of the forest conditions that are going to be actively manipulated by the management community to hopefully restore some resilience to this system," said Connor Wood, lead researcher at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics.
This approach proves remarkably cost-effective compared to traditional wildlife surveys. "If you think about what the cost would have been to get that amount of information by having biologists collecting data across the landscape... the cost effectiveness can't really be matched," Brunk noted.
The study also serves as a model for wildlife monitoring in other regions facing similar challenges. "It's sort of a blueprint for how passive acoustic monitoring can inform management," said Brunk.
"By combining new technologies with practical management needs, we're creating tools that can help protect both forests and wildlife during a time of rapid environmental change,” said Wood.
The research was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Oregon State University, University of California-Merced, and Chemnitz University of Technology.
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Brunk, K. M., J. F. Goldberg, C. Maxwell, M. Z. Peery, G. M. Jones, L. R. Gallagher, H. A. Kramer. A. L. Westerling, J. J Keane, S. Kahl, and C. M. Wood. (2025). Bioregional-scale acoustic monitoring can support fire-prone forest restoration planning. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2843
Journal
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
Bioregional-scale acoustic monitoring can support fire-prone forest restoration planning
Article Publication Date
11-Mar-2025
Birds’ high blood sugar defies ageing expectations
A large-scale comparative study suggests that some birds have evolved mechanisms to avoid the harmful effects of high blood sugar, granting insights into metabolism and ageing
eLife
A large-scale study of 88 bird species reveals that some birds with high blood sugar levels show resistance to protein glycation, suggesting they have evolved mechanisms to avoid the harmful effects typically associated with glucose metabolism.
The study is the first extensive, comparative analysis of the relationship between blood sugar levels, glycation rates, diet and life history in birds. Published today as a revised Reviewed Preprint in eLife, it is described by the editors as important work with convincing evidence that blood sugar level is positively correlated with glycation levels. Although there are some limitations related to data collection, they say that these likely make the statistically significant findings more conservative.
Understanding how different species regulate blood sugar levels is essential for uncovering the links between metabolism, ageing and disease. High blood sugar is typically associated with accelerated ageing and health complications, largely due to protein glycation – a process where sugars react with proteins, leading to cellular damage.
The pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis proposes that an organism’s metabolic rate, lifespan, reproductive strategies and behaviour evolve in predictable ways. Under this framework, species with fast metabolisms, short lifespans and high reproductive rates are expected to have higher blood sugar and glycation levels. Conversely, those with longer lifespans and slower developmental times should have lower blood sugar levels and greater resistance to glycation. However, it is unclear how glycation has coevolved with other traits across species, and so it is undetermined whether glycation fits into the framework of the pace of life hypothesis.
“Birds are particularly relevant in this context, given their relatively high blood sugar levels – on average almost twice as high as similarly sized mammals,” says lead author Adrián Moreno-Borrallo, (PhD) at the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, University of Strasbourg, CNRS, Strasbourg, France. “This is thought to be an adaptation allowing flight, providing birds with the fuel needed to power intense bursts of aerobic exercise. But it is also paradoxical. Despite their higher blood sugar levels, birds show remarkable longevity compared to their mammalian counterparts, living up to three times longer.”
To investigate this apparent paradox, Moreno-Borrallo and colleagues conducted an analysis of 484 individual birds from 88 different species. They compared blood sugar levels and glycation rates in relation to the birds’ life history traits – lifespan, body mass, developmental time, reproductive investment (measured by clutch mass – the total mass of their eggs) and diet. They sought to identify whether these species of birds followed the framework set by the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis.
Their results revealed substantial variation in blood sugar levels across species. Smaller birds, such as swifts and passerines, had the highest blood sugar levels, while larger species, such as flamingos and geese, had the lowest. Glycation rates followed a similar trend, with smaller birds showing higher levels and larger birds displaying lower levels.
However, the relationship between blood sugar levels and lifespan was more complex. While longer-lived birds generally had higher blood sugar levels, this increase plateaued beyond a certain point. This suggests that some species have evolved mechanisms to prevent glycation-related damage, rather than avoiding high blood sugar levels altogether.
Another unexpected finding was that terrestrial carnivorous birds had significantly higher glycation rates than omnivorous birds, despite having similar blood sugar levels. This indicates that factors beyond blood sugar levels, such as differences in protein metabolism, antioxidant defences or dietary components including fibre and polyunsaturated fatty acids, may influence how different species are able to mitigate glycation-related damage.
The results challenge some predictions of the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis. While body size showed a strong relation to blood sugar levels, reproductive investment showed no significant relationship with glycation, and glucose levels increased with lifespan instead of decreasing.
“Our results are only in minor agreement with predictions from the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis. It holds true for body mass, but not for the other life-history variables tested,” says co-senior author Fabrice Bertile, a researcher at the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, University of Strasbourg, CNRS, and the National Proteomics Infrastructure, ProFi, Strasbourg, France. “The link between blood sugar levels and lifespan may depend on species-specific factors that influence how glucose affects ageing. Further research should target this area, as well as exploring other groups of birds that are underrepresented in our study due to logistical constraints.”
“These results increase our knowledge about the diversity of blood sugar levels and glycation patterns across birds, challenging conventional wisdom about metabolism, ageing and disease,” concludes co-senior author François Criscuolo, a researcher at the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, University of Strasbourg, CNRS. “There is considerable variation in blood sugar levels and glycation rates between species, with those with the highest glucose levels showing greater resistance to glycation, hinting at an evolved mechanism for this resistance. Understanding how this glycation resistance arose could provide crucial insights in human health research, particularly in areas like diabetes, longevity and metabolic disorders.”
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eLife transforms research communication to create a future where a diverse, global community of scientists and researchers produces open and trusted results for the benefit of all. Independent, not-for-profit and supported by funders, we improve the way science is practised and shared. In support of our goal, we introduced the eLife Model that ends the accept–reject decision after peer review. Instead, papers invited for review are published as Reviewed Preprints that contain public peer reviews and an eLife Assessment. We also continue to publish research that was accepted after peer review as part of our traditional process. eLife is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about.
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Journal
eLife
Article Title
Variation in albumin glycation rates in birds suggests resistance to relative hyperglycaemia rather than conformity to the pace of life syndrome hypothesis
Article Publication Date
11-Mar-2025
Vocal changes in birds may predict age-related disorders in people, study finds
University of Arizona neuroscientists studying the brains of songbirds have found that aging alters the gene expressions that control the birds' song. The finding could lead to earlier diagnoses and better treatments for human neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which are known to hinder vocal production in their early stages.
The study, published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, found that networks of interacting genes, in a region of the bird's brain involved with singing, dramatically change as the bird ages. At the center of these networks are "hub genes" that drive activity of many other genes. A better understanding of the hub genes could be crucial to developing treatments for age-related disorders.
"If you could make a drug that could influence a particular hub gene, you might potentially influence hundreds of other genes around it and see a macroscopic effect," said lead study author Charles Higgins, an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the university's BIO5 Institute. "That could be a drug that could slow Alzheimer's disease, for example."
The study is the latest to investigate the link between vocal production and aging. Senior study author Julie E. Miller, also an associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience, has studied those connections for years using zebra finch songbirds.
"There is some hopeful news in that the bird is still able to produce the song behavior, even with the genetic changes, and it suggests that there are also some ways that the bird is adapting to what's going on in the brain," said Miller, who has a shared appointment in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and is a member of the BIO5 Institute. "This might offer resilience strategies for humans."
Zebra finches, native to Australia, have a strikingly similar-looking brain to humans', particularly the area known as the basal ganglia, which is used for motor function, including speech, Miller said. The finches also develop their birdsong by mimicking their parents and other birds around them – the same way humans learn to speak.
Perhaps most importantly to researchers, the birdsong is also a measurable marker for changes in the brain, allowing scientists to see how the song's pitch, volume and intensity change along with other factors.
For their latest paper, Miller and her colleagues recorded the songs of 36 birds, ranging widely in age, and studied how the genes associated with singing began to behave differently as the birds grew older.
They found that the gene networks start as vast arrays of activity in younger birds before thinning out into just a few single genes as the birds get older.
Miller said she hopes further research can shed more light on the changes to the hub genes as the finches age.
"Really, the logical goal is to try to understand whether these hub genes are important, what do they do to the song, and, if we manipulate their expression, can we prevent or slow down the aging process that affects our vocal communication?" she said.
Other researchers on the paper included Sri Harsha Vishwanath, a graduate research associate in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences; Fiona McCarthy, a professor of animal and comparative biomedical sciences; Michelle Gordon, a former undergraduate student in Miller's lab; and Beate Peter, an associate professor at Arizona State University.
The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Nos. P30AG019610 and P30AG072980 to the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, via a sub-award to J.E. Miller. The work was also supported by the Arizona Department of Health Services and the state of Arizona under ADHS Grant No. CTR057001.
Journal
Neurobiology of Aging
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Animal tissue samples
Article Title
Normative aging results in degradation of gene networks in a zebra finch basal ganglia nucleus dedicated to vocal behavior
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