Tuning into Fennoscandian forests: using bioacoustics to improve forest management for wildlife conservation

Objective

The forests of Fennoscandia are intensively managed habitats, shaped by a century of human intervention for forestry, despite often being perceived as wilderness. Wildlife populations in these forests continue to decline, and now these once-wildlife-havens risk becoming “empty forests”. This project aims to strengthen long-term conservation in Fennoscandia and Europe's boreal forests by providing data-informed, best practice guidance on managing production forests to improve conservation and slow population declines. Leveraging cutting-edge advancements in ecological monitoring, automated data processing, and remote sensing, I will analyse ~30 TB of existing acoustic data from ~100 sites in 3 countries. This will provide high-resolution data on the spatial patterns of species diversity and activity for bats, birds, and singing insects, and help critically assess soundscape indices as proxies for biodiversity. I will evaluate how forest management impacts 3-dimensional forest structure and the consequences for wildlife across trophic levels. The knowledge generated will inform strategies to bolster the ecological value of these habitats. The research supports international sustainability targets under the EU Biodiversity and Forest Strategies for 2030 and targets under the UN Sustainable Development Goal 15. This project will align cutting-edge tools with urgent policy needs, engaging stakeholders (e.g. certification bodies, landowners) throughout the project to ensure the outputs meet stakeholder needs for long-term implementation. This includes providing professional training to increase research and monitoring capacity in Fennoscandia. This fellowship provides the necessary experience, intersectional leadership, and analytical skills to work at the science-policy-industry interface, positioning me to lead multinational conservation initiatives as an independent researcher.