Using functionally representative bird species and passive acoustic monitoring to model ecological variation across a land use mosaic in a dryland system

Birds, through their wide range of functional traits, can serve as useful indicators of ecological change. Monitoring them across spatial scales has been considerably enhanced through passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and automated call identification. Reconciling PAM with avian functional ecology remains an underexplored domain and could be a useful ecological assessment tool – especially in dryland ecosystems. In this study, we followed a systematic selection process to identify functionally representative and acoustically compatible bird species across variably managed (fenced‐in) land parcels in north‐central Namibia. Following this selection process, we identified eight suitable species, and used variables relating to land management, soil and vegetation to construct alternative occupancy models to estimate our selected species' occupancy probabilities across our study area. For five species, models with our ‘core' variables outperformed the null model, with several species distributions influenced by different environmental variables. Our findings demonstrate a quantitative, PAM‐ and trait‐based approach to indicator species selection and the ways in which landscape features can affect the occupancy probabilities of functionally representative bird species. While exploratory in nature, this study can help develop an ecological monitoring concept that not only integrates bioacoustics and trait‐based assessments but presents an effective tool for more underrepresented regions.