Ecoacoustics tools reveal effects of human-caused wildfires on anuran communities of the Yungas Andean Forest

Abstract

Wildfires significantly impact biodiversity, yet their effects on acoustic communities and soundscapes more generally are still not fully comprehended. This study employs passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and ecoa-coustics tools to assess the impact of human-caused wildfires on the anuran communities and the soundscape composition in the premontane strata of the Yungas Andean forests of Argentina. We deployed nine automated recording units across burned, semi-burned, and non-burned forest sites. We assessed anuran species richness by manual annotations from the recordings and analyzed the soundscape diversity and composition using Opera-tional Sound Units and Hill-based soundscape diversity indices. Non-burned forest sites exhibited significantly higher anuran species richness compared to fire-affected sites. In addition, soundscape diversity was reduced in fire-affected sites, with non-burned forests retaining high-frequency biophony, unlike burned forests dominated by low-frequency sounds. Principal coordinate analysis revealed differences in soundscape composition among acoustic communities, with burned and semi-burned sites clustering separately from non-burned sites. Daily sound patterns showed dramatic changes in burned areas, indicating disrupted ecological acoustic niches. Ourfindings show that wildfires significantly alter both the anuran diversity and soundscapes composition particularly affecting habitat-specialist species like treefrogs. Ecoacoustic tools effectively captured imminent post-fire soundscape changes, highlighting their utility for monitoring impacts on biodiversity. These results underscore the need for integrated wildfire prevention programmes aiming to conserve acoustic communities and soundscapes in threatened ecosystems. Long-term PAM is recommended to track post-fire biodiversity re-covery and to evaluate conservation actions in the Yungas forests and other fire-prone landscapes.