Passive Acoustic Monitoring Provides Insights Into Avian Use of Energycane Cropping Systems in Southern Florida

Birds are important indicators of ecosystem health and provide a range of benefits to society. It is important, therefore, to understand the impacts of agricultural land use changes on bird populations. The cultivation of energycane (EC) – a sugarcane hybrid – for biofuel production represents one form of agricultural land use change in southern Florida. We used passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to examine bird community use of experimental EC fields and other agricultural land uses at two study sites in southern Florida. We deployed 16 acoustic recorders in different study plots and identified 30 focal bird species. We found no difference in avian species richness or occurrence rates between EC plots and reference agricultural fields (corn fields, orchards, pastureland) or between time periods (pre-planting, post-planting). Our data supports previous research on some species- and taxonomic-specific responses to sugarcane. Overall, our results suggest that avian communities utilize EC cropping systems similar to other agricultural land uses in southern Florida.