ECOLOGICAL ACOUSTICS AND BEHAVIOR LAB
at the University of New Hampshire
JOIN THE LAB
The Ecological Acoustics and Behavior Lab at the University of New Hampshire, led by Professor Laura Kloepper, seeks lab members with an interest and/or experience in acoustics, sensory biology, quantitative methods, video analysis, technology for wildlife, and conservation. Our lab is committed to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect among our team. Please read more below for opportunities depending on your career classification.
Prospective Graduate Students
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Prospective graduate students should email Laura Kloepper (laura.kloepper@unh.edu) with your CV and a brief description of how our research relates to your interests and/or career goals.
Prospective Undergraduate Students
The EAB lab is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of researchers by providing undergraduate students with opportunities to explore their curiosity through meaningful research experiences in bioacoustics and behavior. With the mentorship of senior lab members, we strive to create a collaborative environment where knowledge is shared, innovation and outreach are encouraged, and personal and professional growth is supported. Through our work, we hope to better understand wildlife, aid in their conservation, and foster a community of learners and scientists with strengthened connections to nature.
Current projects available for undergraduate involvement
Students interested in any of these projects should email Dr. Kloepper at laura.kloepper@unh.edu
BatCount 2.0
The goal of the BatCount 2.0 Project is to test and develop improvements to a new-and-improved automated bat counting software which will be used by federal and state agencies to monitor bat populations and inform conservation strategies. Since bats can be challenging to census, wildlife managers have been using thermal video to capture images of bats as they emerge from caves and roosts, then manually evaluate the recordings. This new software will allow users to input a thermal video of bats in flight which will quickly and accurately be analyzed to generate an estimate of the number of bats that are present. Students will assist with selecting videos for testing, identifying and defining important characteristics of videos, performing manual counts of bats in videos, visually inspecting accuracy of software counts, compiling and analyzing output data, assisting with the development of a step-by-step user manual, and creating recommendations for how to produce high quality videos. This project welcomes students from any major and background.
Moose Acoustics
The Moose Acoustics Project focuses on the vocalization behavior of Moose (Alces alces) in relation to habitat structure and quality. This project has deployed multiple sound recorders in northern New Hampshire forests. We will be working with parameters to detect moose calls and their vocalizing behavior (such as frequency range, call duration, call type, etc.). Students working on this project will help listen to and classify potential wildlife vocalizations from our dataset, which will be integrated into a larger project incorporating computer science to create a custom moose audio classifier. This project has many opportunities for students of all levels majoring in Zoology, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, or Computer Science. From the acoustic data, we can determine which environmental factors (co-variates) play an important role in determining moose presence within forests. This project would be useful for learning about habitat and wildlife management, as well as developing a tool to discover acoustic behavior of moose.
Acoustic and motor behavior of social bats
The goal of this project is to determine whether individual bats change their echolocation as a result of other nearby echolocating bats, which is a hotly debated topic. Understanding these behaviors of social bats is important for current conservation efforts such as estimating population sizes with acoustics or monitoring species interactions with wind farms. This work would involve analyzing thermal videos of bats flying in a cave to isolate sequences where certain numbers of bats are flying at the same time, and later quantifying patterns in the bats' echolocation sounds. This project is multi-faceted and requires manual analyses of bat behavior, manual and automated analyses of acoustic parameters, statistical modeling, and reviews of existing literature. This project welcomes students of all levels majoring in Zoology, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, or Engineering. Upon gaining more experience, undergraduate researchers will be provided more freedom to tackle specific parts of the project that appeal to their research interests or design their own research questions.
Tern Acoustics Project
The Tern Acoustics Project is a collaborative project with the Shoal’s Marine Lab that aims to better understand the vocal behavior of common terns, how their vocal behavior is affected by environmental phenomena, and examine phenological trends to ultimately develop acoustic monitoring methods to aid in their conservation. We are seeking undergraduate involvement to explore spatial variation in the acoustic environment across a colony of common terns and how weather affects the vocal behavior of these birds. This would include auditory, visual, and statistical analysis of acoustic data and creating figures to visualize trends in data. This project welcomes students from all majors and backgrounds. We encourage students to share ideas for other research projects using this dataset.