Cumberland Plain Woodland Acoustic Recordings from TERN SuperSite

Long-term acoustic recordings from the TERN Cumberland Plain Woodland SuperSite, established in 2012 in New South Wales, Australia. Audio was collected for 12 hours daily, split between dawn and dusk periods, using up to four recorders. The data includes generated long-term spectrograms and sensor readings for temperature and sound pressure levels.

Use Cases

• Characterize the soundscape by analyzing long-term spectrograms to identify diurnal and seasonal acoustic patterns.
• Assess fauna biodiversity by detecting and classifying sound sources of interest, such as bird choruses targeted by the dawn/dusk recording schedule.
• Monitor environmental changes by correlating acoustic activity with concurrently recorded temperature and sound pressure level data.
• Track temporal trends in ecosystem health by analyzing audio data collected since 2011 from a protected forest remnant subject to environmental pressures.

Strengths

• Long-term data collection spanning from 2011, providing a multi-year time series.
• Recordings target biologically rich periods with 12 hours of daily audio split around dawn and dusk.
• Includes derived data products such as long-term spectrograms for each audio file to aid exploration.
• Sensor data captures concurrent environmental variables like temperature and sound pressure levels.

Limitations

• The specific number of audio files, their total size, and recording resolution are not provided.
• Data accessibility may be complex, requiring following specific bulk download instructions for large amounts.
• The recording focus on dawn and dusk may underrepresent nocturnal and midday acoustic activity.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery

Collection Method

Audio collected by acoustic recorders deployed at the site, with a schedule targeting morning and evening choruses.

Time Range

Recordings began in 2011; ongoing data collection is implied.

Freshness

Metadata was last updated in March 2026.

Geography

Cumberland Plain Woodland SuperSite, Hawkesbury Campus of the University of Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.