The Soundscapes to Landscapes Project: Development of a Bioacoustics-Based Monitoring Workflow with Multiple Citizen Scientist Contributions
Open accessAbstract
Citizen science is an important approach for ecological studies that require county-scale or broader geographic coverage. Here we report on project management, technology, and the variety of roles and levels of engagement of citizen scientists in the Soundscapes to Landscapes project, focused in Sonoma County, California, USA. The project uses low-cost autonomous recording units (ARUs) and bioacoustic analysis to monitor bird diversity and soundscape components at a regional scale. In five years, 259 citizen scientists collectively volunteered 8,390 hours on a range of tasks, with 40% field work and 41% bioacoustic reference data collection, but also including geographic information systems, social media, and data upload. Citizen scientists were a mix of expert collaborators, community volunteers, and undergraduate students. In five distinct field campaigns, 141 citizen scientists deployed recording devices during the breeding bird season at 1,281 sites on public and private lands, and collected 12,431 hours of raw audio recordings. For bioacoustic analysis, we used a custom web-based citizen science interface to produce labeled reference data, through which seven expert citizen scientists and 105 user-level citizen scientists produced 230,066 labeled audio clips. We found that word-of-mouth and personal connections were the best strategies for recruitment and retainment of citizen scientists. Levels of engagement among citizen scientists varied, and community volunteers who participated in more than one task contributed more time to the project overall. Undergraduate students were a valuable citizen scientist group in the project, contributing 48% of the total citizen scientist effort and were particularly important for field work success.
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Large initiatives like Soundscapes to Landscapes show that volunteers can deploy hundreds of recorders successfully, multiplying coverage and enabling biodiversity maps at a resolution unthinkable a decade ago.
“Large initiatives like Soundscapes to Landscapes show that volunteers can deploy hundreds of recorders successfully, multiplying coverage and enabling biodiversity maps at a resolution that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago”
From Listening forward: emerging roles of bioacoustics in ecology, evolution, and conservation (2026) · cites this paper as Snyder et al. 2022
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- (self.__next_s=self.__next_s||[]).push([0,{"children":"window.__ENV__ = {\"RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY\":\"6LcxADcmAAAAAAuzXat_nO9ywhyvJEKalkmZaJtH\",\"SERVICE_CODE\":\"up-j-cstp\",\"FRONTEND_URL\":\"https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org\",\"FRONTEND_DOMAIN\":\"theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org\",\"OJS_API_URL\":\"https://api.account.up-j-cstp.ubiquityjournal.website/api/journal/1\"};","id":"public-env"}])This page is for printing. If you wish to read this article, please visit its full version.The Soundscapes to Landscapes Project: Development of a Bioacoustics-Based Monitoring Workflow with Multiple Citizen Scientist ContributionsRose SnyderMatthew ClarkLeonardo SalasWendy SchackwitzDavid LelandTaylour StephensTiffany EricksonTeresa TuffliMiles TuffliKathleen ClasAbstractCitizen science is an important approach for ecological studies that require county-scale or broader geographic coverage. Here we report on project management, technology, and the variety of roles and levels of engagement of citizen scientists in the Soundscapes to Landscapes project, focused in Sonoma County, California, USA. The project uses low-cost autonomous recording units (ARUs) and bioacoustic analysis to monitor bird diversity and soundscape components at a regional scale. In five years, 259 citizen scientists collectively volunteered 8,390 hours on a range of tasks, with 40% field work and 41% bioacoustic reference data collection, but also including geographic information systems, social media, and data upload. Citizen scientists were a mix of expert collaborators, community volunteers, and undergraduate students. In five distinct field campaigns, 141 citizen scientists deployed recording devices during the breeding bird season at 1,281 sites on public and private lands, and collected 12,431 hours of raw audio recordings. For bioacoustic analysis, we used a custom web-based citizen science interface to produce labeled reference data, through which seven expert citizen scientists and 105 user-level citizen scientists produced 230,066 labeled audio clips. We found that word-of-mouth and personal connections were the best strategies for recruitment and retainment of citizen scientists. Levels of engagement among citizen scientists varied, and community volunteers who participated in more than one task contributed more time to the project overall. Undergraduate students were a valuable citizen scientist group in the project, contributing 48% of the total citizen scientist effort and were particularly important for field work success.Year: 2022Volume: 7 Issue: 1Page/Article: 24DOI: 10.5334/cstp.391Accepted on Apr 17, 2022Published on May 27, 2022Peer ReviewedCC BY 4.0 · DOI
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- Authors
- Snyder, R., Clark, M., Salas, L., Schackwitz, W., Leland, D., Stephens, T., Erickson, T., Tuffli, T., Tuffli, M., & Clas, K.
- Affiliations
- Point Blue Conservation Science (US)
- Sonoma State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Snyder, Rose
- Venue
- Citizen Science: Theory and Practice
- Publisher
- Ubiquity Press, Ltd.
- Published
- 2022-05-27
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 24
- ISSN
- 2057-4991 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4281770717
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4
- FWCI
- 2.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Citizen Science Theory and Practice (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (Citizen Science Association) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- NASA’s Citizen Science for Earth Systems Program (CSESP) (80NSSC18M0107)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecological Modeling › Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Keywords
- citizen science, bioacoustics, soundscape monitoring, bird diversity, autonomous recording units, volunteer recruitment and retention, Sonoma County
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