Animal soundscapes reveal key markers of Amazon forest degradation from fire and logging

Abstract

Significance Fire and logging reduce the carbon stored in Amazon forests, but the long-term impact of forest degradation on animal communities remains unclear. We recorded thousands of hours of ecosystem sounds to investigate the acoustic fingerprint of the animal community in degraded Amazon forests following fire and logging. The emergent 24-h patterns of acoustic activity differed between logged and burned forests, and we observed large and sustained shifts in acoustic community assembly after multiple fires. Soundscape differences among degraded forests were clearest during insect-dominated hours rarely sampled in field studies of biodiversity. These findings demonstrate that acoustic monitoring holds promise for routine biodiversity assessments, even by non-experts, to capture a holistic measure of sound-producing animals and track ecosystem changes over time.