Using sensors and smart listening technology to understand more about on-farm habitats and the biodiversity they support is coming to a field near you.

Known as bioacoustics, it combines biology and acoustics and is being trialled to monitor bird populations and pollinator numbers.

It can also be used to detect a wide range of species and identify areas where wildlife numbers are changing.

While biodiversity monitoring is not new – most farmers are carrying out some sort of measurement – the latest technology and methods of interpretation are, with artificial intelligence and machine learning playing a central role in the identification of wildlife and pollinators.

As a result, it can support the delivery of more sustainable production and assess the effectiveness of nature-based solutions without having to spend hours in the field or employ experts to do surveys.

See also: Why trees in hedges improve arable farm landscapes

The sensors used can be powered by either solar or battery and have a data connection, tracking pollinator or bird activity in real-time with microphones. Many of them also measure environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity.

Environmental surveillance

As Geoff Carss, founder and chief executive officer of Wilder Sensing explains, bioacoustics measures the impact on the environment in a low-cost way, giving scalable measurements from technology-based monitoring systems.

“It records the natural sounds in a given area and then relates that to biology, behaviour and the environment,” he says.

© Wilder Sensing

“It’s a type of environmental surveillance, but in an easier form and with greater scope to gather evidence.”

Geoff adds that everything has an acoustic signature. “Once you’ve recorded your farm or specific area, there are services that can help you interpret that data.”

Real-time monitoring

Casey Woodward, chief executive officer of AgriSound, says the company offers real-time biodiversity monitoring solutions, with equipment that picks up the natural sounds in a given area.

Currently, sensors used for pollinators can detect honeybees and bumblebees, but more species are on their way, he reveals, with a landscape monitoring system in development for launching later in 2025.

“It interprets nature’s noises,” he explains.

© Agrisound

“Eventually we will be able to pick up bird, mammal, amphibian and insect species, so we can measure the effect of land use changes or different management practices.

“It will help us to understand more about what different habitats offer.”

Sustainability reporting

Casey adds that the technology will also play an important role in corporate reporting, with compliance records and evidence needed for supply chain resilience and biodiversity tracking requirements.

“It also works well for looking at localised distribution of species within an environment, as well as for assessing what climate change and habitat loss mean for biodiversity.” 

© Agrisound

Another company just starting to operate in this area is BioDScan, which uses computer vision and machine learning to measure pollinators and beneficials in the form of bees and ladybirds.

Yield improvement

It is now keen to test its camera and ground sensor technology with farmers, as it gets it out into fields and looks at the correlation between pollinator numbers and better crop yields.

“There are good business reasons for farmers to do this,” says BioDscan’s chief executive officer, Steve Russell.

“And looking further ahead, there will be other uses for the technology, such as monitoring biting insects of cattle.”

He points out that climate change will impact pollinator and pest numbers, with wet springs affecting numbers.

“The more data we can gather, the better it will be for biodiversity.”  

Case study: Wendling Beck, Norfolk

High-integrity habitats to support target species are part of the make-up of Wendling Beck in Norfolk, which is involved in landscape-scale nature recovery across 808ha.

Based on a tributary of the River Wensum, the aim has been to build out and buffer a water catchment, with a number of landowners and stakeholders working together for a common good.

When it started five years ago, the plan was to create a legacy in a water-stressed part of the UK coming under enormous environmental pressures, reveals Alex Begg, who recognised that the biodiversity and nature it supported were relevant to emerging markets such as biodiversity net gain (BNG).

A range of stakeholders are involved, from private landowners to Norfolk County Council, the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Anglian Water.

While all have slightly different perspectives and priorities, they have worked collaboratively to come up with a masterplan.

“It means that we have been able to include nature reserves, wet woodland and lakes, grassland and scrub, as well as some land which is farmed in a way that’s consistent with nature creation,” explains Alex, partner at the Wendling Beck Environment Project.

Progress so far

Some 80ha of lowland meadow has been created so far, with woodland and hedges planted. BNG units are being sold, with a commitment to deliver biodiversity on range of habitats for 30 years.

“It was baselined in May 2021, which is when we realised how important data was,” notes Alex.

“Technology-based monitoring systems are being tested, as we work to do our best for nature and the local community.”

Dave Appleton, an ecologist, started trialling bioacoustics monitoring in 2022 when four devices were installed and used to monitor bird populations at the site.

They ran for six hours a day, before and after dawn and dusk, producing an impressive species list.

Skylark © Frances Browne/Alamy Stock Photo

“I compared them with boots-on-the-ground surveys and found 98% of detections were correct, with 41 species identified,” he says.

“There were a few incorrect identifications and more species were detected than were actually present with articial intelligence, but after making those adjustments there was a strong correlation between the two.”

Some inaccuracies can be explained by background noise and multiple bird calls at the same time.

“Of the 41 species it picked up, we know they are all present at Wendling Beck.”

More work needed

He stresses that the comparison was done for one season at one site.

“More work is needed. But artificial intelligence recording can also give vital species richness information and tell us if it is improving or declining, as we found in a transect trial.”

By altering the four thresholds – detection confidence, location probability, calls per day and number of days a call is detected – it meant the acoustic results were very similar to those done by traditional surveys.

“It will always need some specialist support and won’t completely replace ecologists on the ground.”

Dave adds that it could also be used to measure the abundance of each species – using the example of measuring calls from skylark territories – and to investigate where different species are and when they are vocal.

“Cuckoo calls per week is a good example of that, with a pattern emerging from April onwards.”