Above Ground Level. The height, in meters, of an aerial vehicle measured at any given time relative to the nadir.
Ambient noise
Regular (continuous or intermittent) non-target noises that may obscure the target sounds. Common Ambient noises include wind, running water, vehicles, people’s voices and construction.
AOI
Area of interest. A specific area within the landscape for which the aim is to collect a representative sample of biodiversity.
BACI
Before-After Control-Impact survey design
Band filter
Subset frequencies to be recorded. For example, it may be practical to filter out all frequencies more than half the sampling rate.
Biochar
A charcoal like carbon rich substance made by burning organic material through a process called pyrolysis.
Camera angle (aerial)
The angle of the camera relative to the horizontal flightpath of the UAV such that 90° is straight down (i.e. nadir)
Camera-trap
A remote camera with a defined automatic trigger (e.g., motion, time-lapse)
Camera-height
The height in cm from the ground to the motion detector. Standard NS protocols stipulate that cameras should be placed ~45 cm above the ground but rare exceptions can be made if the camera needs to be higher to avoid an object obstructing its field of view; in such cases that camera should be placed at a slight downward angle.
Centroid
A point at the center of a corresponding sampling grid cell denoted by a geohash, a longitude coordinate, and a latitude.
Centroid cameras
A camera placed at the centroid of each grid cell. When the centroid has a reasonably good field of view, the camera should be placed within 5 m of the centroid, facing the centroid. If there are obstructing factors, the camera can be placed up to 30 m from the centroid. All centroid cameras should be interpreted as following a randomized sampling design.
Closed woodland
Habitat patches with plentiful trees and interconnected canopies over most of the patch or immediate vicinity.
Control
: A site where management effects are not modified, providing an indication of what would have happened if the intervention(s) being studied had not been implemented.
CPP
Carbon Pool Plot. A 50m X 50m sampling site within which NS measures aboveground and belowground carbon stocks.
Deployment
The defined period of continuous time a single remote sensor is active within the environment at a single, defined station as part of a survey.
Deployment group
Temporally distinct sets of geographically or thematically grouped and contemporaneous (e.g., seasonal deployment groups).
Dominant woody vegetation
The primary species that provides structure to the habitat within or around a sampling unit. Must stand taller than the height of the grass. The dominant woody vegetation might not be the most abundant type but is rather the one that consistently provides maximum vertical structure within the grid cell.
EOV
Ecological Outcome Verification, a monitoring protocol used to monitor the effects of regenerative grazing by the Savory Institute.
Exclosure
A defined area fenced intended to prevent some species of wild animals from accessing the area to reduce browsing and prevent unsafe human-wildlife encounters or facilitate tree growth and recruitment. Exclosures have a variety of fencing types that restrict the movement of either elephants and giraffe or all medium-large herbivores. In actuality, excosures reduce access but do not prevent access to excluded animals.
Extension
An exclosure or portion of exclosure erected in 2022 or later.
Float detectors
Deployments of sampling devices that are placed at locations largely at the discretion of the field team to maximize detection probabilities for animals that use the surrounding habitat.
Frequency
The number of times per second that a sound pressure wave repeats itself. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz) or, more often, in kilohertz (kHz). Most bird calls are between 0 and 16 kHz.
Gain
In a receiving antenna, the gain describes how well the antenna converts radio waves arriving from a specified direction into electrical power. It is basically a measure of sensitivity; the higher the gain the more likely the sensor is to detect a signal (e.g., bird call) but the more background noise is generated.
GEM
Global Ecological Monitoring. A global biological research project to measure ecological processes. A 50m X 50m sampling site within which NS measures aboveground and belowground carbon stocks and rates of carbon cycling.
Grid cell
A geohash or other rectangular area within which one or more sensors may be deployed as semi-independent sampling units.
Habitat type
Coarse, subjective classifications of the amount of woody cover in a heterogeneous savanna typically measured within a ~100m radius of the sampling location (see open grassland, open woodland, and closed woodland).
Image overlap (aerial)
The percent of two sequential images that is captured in both.
LiDAR
Light Detection and Ranging, a remote sensing method that uses laser pulses to measure distances to the Earth’s surface, providing highly detailed 3D maps.
LLBN
The Lewa-Lolldaiga-Borana-Ngare Ndare landscape (See study site description for details).
Multispectral imagery
A form of imaging which captures several spectral bands, some of which lie outside the visible spectrum.
Nadir
The point on the ground closest (i.e., directly below) to the aerial vehicle.
Oblique aerial imagery
Still photographs of the landscape taken from an aerial vehicle at an angle such that neither the horizon nor the nadir point below the aerial vehicle are in the field of view.
Open grassland
Habitat patches with few or no trees, or a small clump of trees highly localized within the patch or immediate vicinity.
Open woodland
Habitat patches that are covered primarily by grass but trees or bushes are spaced somewhat regularly throughout most of the patch or immediate vicinity.
Paddock
A two dimensional site allocated a specific grazing treatment which is implemented using portable electric fencing.
Pitfall trap
A round plastic container approximately 10cm deep used to collect ground dwelling invertebrates.
Project
A concerted, data-driven effort to robustly measure variation in Biodiversity, Carbon, or Human-wellbeing in response to one or more sources of heterogeneity in a designated landscape.
RBS
The Rangelands Baseline Survey
A concerted effort to assess the impact of various rangeland management practices on the bird and medium-large mammal populations of the LLBN landscape.
Recording cycle
The combined duration (usually measured in seconds) of one recording period and one sleep period. For example, if a recording period is 3570 seconds and a sleep period is 30 seconds, then the recording cycle is 3600 seconds.
Recording duration
A defined duration measured in seconds during which a device is actively recording during the recording period. The recording duration defines the duration of each individual audio file.
Recording periods
Defined periods of a 24-hour day during which the recorder operates recording cycles. The recording periods can be set in UTC or local time so it is important to make sure that recording periods are specified in the correct time zone.
Remote sensor
An electronic sensor with automated data collecting capabilities that operate independently of a human handler.
Rough, hilly terrain
Areas with a Terrain Ruggedness Index (Riley et al 1999) of 40 or greater or above 2100 m elevation, calculated from SRTM ~90m DEM data.
S123
Survey123, a field-data collection app from ESRI which NS uses for recording all field observations and survey metadata.
Sampling design
The set of field methods employed in a survey and the manner of their use.
Sampling features
Physical fine-scale characteristics of the landscape that correlate with animal movement and space use such that detection within a used habitat patch is assumed to be greater on or near such features than away from them.
Sampling protocol
Explicit survey methodology that describes the design, effort, duration, configuration, and operation of a survey.
Sampling rate
The sampling rate is how rapidly continuous sound is discretized during digitization. It’s equivalent to the frames-per-second rate in video. The sample rate must be at least double the highest frequency you want to record. For example, in order to record sounds up to 20 kHz, a sample rate of at least 40 kHz is required.
Sampling site
A distinct, discrete spatial unit defined in at least two dimensions where sampling occurs.
Sampling station
A point location where sampling occurs in space.
Sleep duration
A defined duration measured in seconds during which a device does not record sounds. The sleep duration must be less than the recording period.
Soilmentor
An app used to monitor change is soil parameters in response to management regimes.
Soil bulk density
The mass of soil per unit volume, representing the compactness or density of soil, which influences its ability to hold water and support plant growth.
Soil organic carbon
The amount of carbon stored in soil organic matter, measured by spectrometry.
Stocking density
The number or mass of animals within a portion of available pasture for a certain portion of time.
Stocking rate
The number or mass of animals on a given amount of land over a certain period of time.
Study area
A defined geographic region of interest within which one or more surveys investigate ecological patterns at one or more sites.
Survey
A set of simultaneous deployments or related deployment groups of remote sensors over a defined period of time at a coordinated set of stations for the purposes of collecting data on the environment and its biological communities as part of a NS project.
Survey design
The theoretical and practical methods for choosing the spatiotemporal distribution of sampling units in a survey.
Time-lapse camera
A camera-trap which is nt motion triggered but instead captures images at specific, pre-defined time intervals.
Transect
A one-dimensional, discrete spatial unit where sampling occurs.
Treatment
Spatial management effects with ‘control’ indicating the absence of the management effect.
Trigger type
A method to program recorders to only record when sounds above certain amplitudes are detected.
UAV
Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Vegetation structure
Variation in height and woodiness of vegetation that extends above the grass.
