For the tropical rainforest biome aspect of the Biome Health Project, we are collaborating with the SAFE (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems) project, located in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. SAFE is one of the largest ecological experiments in the world, where the research seeks to understand how human activities in tropical forests modify biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. A huge diversity of wildlife is found in the forests in our study area including sunda clouded leopards (Neofelis diardi), sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), sunda pangolins (Manis javanica), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).

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We are working with SAFE to monitor the response of wildlife to logging and forest fragmentation using acoustic sensors. As of February 2018, 12 acoustic monitors have been deployed  across a wide range of forest types (unlogged old growth forest, oil palm plantations, riparian reserves, and logged forests), and forest fragment sizes between 1 - 100 hectares. The acoustic sensors will be left to record the forest continually for at least a year and a half, and the data will be transmitted directly by mobile network to a central server for near real-time results.

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In addition to the acoustic sensors, our team is conducting point count surveys for birds and amphibians at the same locations as the acoustic devices so that we can make comparisons between the different monitoring methods. Insects will also sampled at each location to gain a better understanding of insect diversity.

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