Habitat monitoring can be expensive and labor-intensive, especially for marine habitats where specialized training and gear is required. However, remote acoustic and/or optical techniques might provide rapid, inexpensive methods for monitoring habitats. Many coastal marine habitats exhibit unique soundscapes, and habitat degradation alters these soundscapes such that it might be possible to determine the "health" of a soundscape just by listening to it.

 

I apply acoustic monitoring techniques paired with remote optical equipment to rapidly assess habitat quality in coastal marine habitats. Furthermore, these acoustic and optical datasets can be used in conjunction with distance sampling theory to estimate populations of acoustic indicator species to hopefully garner a more accurate idea of ecosystem health.