Acoustic monitoring data of avian species inside and outside the evacuation zone of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident
Citation
NIES Fukushima Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Team (2019). Acoustic monitoring data of avian species inside and outside the evacuation zone of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident. Version 1.28. National Institute of Genetics, ROIS. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-017-1491-y accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-08-26.Description
Large-scale land abandonment and reconstruction activity has altered the ecosystem structure in the evacuation area for the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident in 2011. Despite social concerns about changes in the avian assemblages that occurred after the accident, publicly accessible data are quite limited. We engaged in acoustic monitoring of birds using digital voice recorders from 2014 in and around the Fukushima evacuation zone. All monitoring sites were located within schoolyards (including those that had been converted to community centers) to examine the bird assemblages in the urban and rural landscapes that were heavily altered by land abandonment due to the nuclear plant accident. A digital voice recorder was installed at each monitoring site during May–July, and we recorded 20 minutes a day using timer-recording mode. We divided the audio data into 1-minute segments and identified species occurred in sampled segments by experts. These data represent the presence-absence records from 52 sites monitored in 2014, 57 sites in 2015, and 54 sites in 2016. We identified the species for 7,138 segments in total and 68 species occurred in 2014, 7945 segments in total and 65 species occurred in 2015, and 5221 segments in total and 58 species occurred in 2016. We are continuing to monitor and intend to update the dataset with new observations hereafter. Our dataset will help people to recognize the status and dynamics of avian assemblage inside the evacuation zone, and will contribute to promote open science in avian ecological studies.Sampling Description
Study Extent
The study area was located in the eastern part of Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and was enclosed within the following four sets of coordinates: (37.80137°N, 140.53747°E), (37.80136°N, 141.00048°E), (36.99588°N, 141.00048°E), and (36.99588°N, 140.53747°E). The study area contained the evacuation zone, which has been categorized into three subzones since October 2013: a zone in preparation for lifting the evacuation order (≤20 mSv/year, Zone 1), a restricted residence area (20–50 mSv/year, Zone 2), and a difficult-to-return-to zone (>50 mSv/year, after five years the air dose rate will be > 20 mSv/year, Zone 3). We set up 52 monitoring sites inside and outside the evacuation zone in 2014 (33 sites outside the evacuation zone, six sites in Zone 1, seven sites in Zone 2, and six sites in Zone 3), which were the same as the insect monitoring sites used by Yoshioka et al. (2015). After that we set up 57 monitoring sites (33 sites outside the evacuation zone, eight sites in Zone 1, ten sites in Zone 2, and six sites in Zone 3) in 2015 and 55 monitoring sites (33 sites outside the evacuation zone, six sites in Zone 1, ten sites in Zone 2, and six sites in Zone 3) in 2016. All monitoring sites were located within schoolyards (including those that had been converted to community centers) to minimize differences in the local site conditions and to examine the bird assemblages in the urban and rural landscapes that were heavily altered by land abandonment due to the nuclear plant accident.Sampling
A digital voice recorder (DS-850, Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) was installed at each monitoring site during May–July in each year. The recorders were adjusted to timer-recording mode and recorded for 10 min before and after sunrise (total 20 min) every day until the batteries were depleted. The recorders were fixed to tripod stands at a height of about 0.9 m. The recorded data were split into 1-min segments in MP3 (124 kbps) format, which was treated as the minimum sample unit. We identified species of birds from acoustic data. Bioacoustics signals is a promised source of information for avian species identification (Lopes et al. 2011), and acoustic monitoring can produce similar result as traditional on-site survey methods in comparative ecological studies (Haselmayer & Quinn 2000; Hobson et al. 2002; Klingbeil & Willig 2015). Because the number of segments was very large, we chose a subset of segments evenly throughout the sampling period (8.08 days/site and 17.0 segments/day/site in 2014, 7.65 days/site and 17.8 segments/day/site in 2015, and 5.74 days/site and 16.8 segments/day/site in 2016, in average). A total of 7,138 of the 45,540 segments were chosen in 2014, 7,945 of the 46,440 segments were chosen in 2015, and 5,221 of the 42,440 segments were chosen in 2016. Species that appeared in each segment were identified by experts and their presence-absence was recorded. Some of the segments were identified through a citizen-scientific project, “Bird Data Challenge (Fukasawa et al. 2017)”, in which we listened to audio data and prepared a species list of birds with involvement of local citizen experts. Data identified through the Bird Data Challenge was checked by authors or other experts to correct misspecifications of species. We were careful to avoid the negative impact (e.g., pressure of photographing and illegal capture) on endangered and attractive species when we made the species distribution data accessible online. We filled the location ID with 'NA' and assigned the mean latitude and longitude of the study area in the presence-absence records for endangered species (i.e., species ranked VU, EN, and CR in the National or Prefectural Red List) and species attracting particular public interest (Terpsiphone atrocaudata and Halcyon coromanda).Quality Control
All species were identified by the authors or by professional experts or local citizen experts. Core members of the local citizen experts belonged to chapters of the Wild Bird Society of Japan in Fukushima Prefecture. If we could not obtain sufficient information to identify a species from acoustic data, we recorded the next highest taxonomic level (e.g., genus) that could be specified with certainty. Scientific names followed the Ornithological Society of Japan (2012). Noise including rain sound was detected in acoustic records during the monitoring, which was indicated in 'eventRemarks'.Method steps
- (1) Presence-absence records with uncertain identification of species were removed.
- (2) Presence-absence records were summed up as daily data.
Taxonomic Coverages
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Avesrank: class
Geographic Coverages
Fukushima, Japan
Bibliographic Citations
- Fukasawa K, Mishima Y, Kumada N, Takenaka A, Yoshioka A, Katsumata K, Haga A, Kubo T, Tamaoki M (2017) Bird Data Challenge: new approach for cooperation between birders and researchers on acoustic identification. Bird Research 13: A15-A28. (in Japanese with English summary) -
- Haselmayer J, Quinn JS (2000) A comparison of point counts and sound recording as bird survey methods in amazonian southeast Peru. The Condor 102: 887-893. DOI: doi:10.1650/0010-5422(2000)102[0887:ACOPCA]2.0.CO;2 -
- Hobson KA, Rempel RS, Greenwood H, Turnbull B, Van Wilgenburg SL (2002) Acoustic surveys of birds using electronic recordings: new potential from an omnidirectional microphone system. Wildl Soc Bull: 709-720. -
- Klingbeil BT, Willig MR (2015) Bird biodiversity assessments in temperate forest: the value of point count versus acoustic monitoring protocols. PeerJ 3: e973. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.973 -
- Lopes MT, Gioppo LL, Higushi TT, Kaestner CA, Silla Jr CN, Koerich AL (2011) Automatic bird species identification for large number of species. Multimedia (ISM), 2011 IEEE International Symposium on: 117-122. -
- Ornithological Society of Japan (2012) Check-list of Japanese birds: 7th revised edition. Ornithological Society of Japan, Tokyo (in Japanese) -
- Yoshioka A, Mishima Y, Fukasawa K (2015) Pollinators and Other Flying Insects inside and outside the Fukushima Evacuation Zone. PLoS ONE 10: e0140957. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140957 -
Contacts
NIES Fukushima Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Teamoriginator
position: Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: ecomoni_fukushima@nies.go.jp
NIES Fukushima Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Team
metadata author
position: Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: ecomoni_fukushima@nies.go.jp
Keita Fukasawa
author
position: Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
Telephone: +8129-850-2676
email: fukasawa@nies.go.jp
Yoshio Mishima
author
position: Junior Research Associate
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
Akira Yoshioka
author
position: Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
10-2 Fukasaku
Miharu
963-7700
Fukushima
JP
Nao Kumada
author
position: Research Assistant
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
Kumiko Totsu
author
position: Specialist (Database engineer)
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
Telephone: +8129-850-2894
email: totsu.kumiko@nies.go.jp
NIES Fukushima Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Team
administrative point of contact
position: Researcher
National Institute for Environmental Studies
16-2 Onogawa
Tsukuba
305-8506
Ibaraki
JP
email: ecomoni_fukushima@nies.go.jp