Optimal settings and advantages of drones as a tool for canopy arthropod collection

Abstract

The growing field of aeroecology is limited by difficulties associated with sampling in the air column. Aerial insects are particularly hard to sample, despite being the main prey in the air column, with some recent studies attempting to use drones as a collection method. We conducted a study to determine the optimal drone settings for collecting insects above the canopy, where drones are seldom used. By attaching a net to the body of a small, commercial drone, we tested yield from different height, speed, and net settings in wetlands, as well as compared insect diversity across different habitat canopies. Height was the most important setting; grazing the canopy yielded significantly more insects than flying one meter above it. Speed, drone type, and net size did not influence the number of insects caught per trial. Wetland canopies had higher abundance, diversity, and species richness in its arthropod populations compared to forest canopies or lakes. Compared to the yield of Lindgren funnels—a traditional sampling method in entomology—drones captured higher diversity and abundance of insects in a fraction of the time. This study confirms that drones are an efficient and accurate way to collect canopy arthropods.

Rapid assessment and management of outbreak of Rice Swarming Caterpillar by drone: a BIG need of the hour

“…Drones have multifaceted applications in the field of agriculture. It is now recommended to use in sampling of insects and for spraying of agro-chemicals and use of drones for surveying arthropods has also been carried out in recent years (Carrasco-Escobar et al, 2022;Madden et al, 2022;Ryu et al, 2022;BettiSorbelli et al, 2023;Trujillano et al, 2023). In Japan, drones .…”

“…Sampling of insect-pests is the base of population count and a determinant of decision making of pest management. Different drones have been recommended for scouting and sampling for minimizing cost, time and efforts for collecting live insects in agricultural fields and in most cases, researchers have suggested the sampling apparatus propelled by drone for adult stage of insect in crop ecosystem (Madden et al, 2022;Ryu et al, 2022). Researchers will have to develop drone based techniques to scout the larval populations of RSC during outbreak period.…”

Changes in the diversity and composition of tree-related microhabitats across climate and human impact gradients on a tropical mountain

“…For future studies, we suggest to test the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with image recording capabilities that could provide similarly detailed surveys, as they have been successfully employed to monitor epiphytes or to sample arthropods from the forest canopy (Krasylenko et al . 2023; Madden et al . 2022).…”

“…While TReM surveys from the ground can cover a greater number of trees faster, they might not be able to detect TReMs in the higher areas of the tree canopy, especially under complex tropical canopies (Martin et al 2022;Paillet et al 2015). For future studies, we suggest to test the use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with image recording capabilities that could provide similarly detailed surveys, as they have been successfully employed to monitor epiphytes or to sample arthropods from the forest canopy (Krasylenko et al 2023;Madden et al 2022).…”

HawkEar: A bird‐borne visual and acoustic platform for eavesdropping the behaviour of mobile animals

“…Over the past decade, unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs, also called drones) have increased in popularity as a mobile alternative for both ecological and behavioural investigation (Corcoran et al., 2021; Fu et al., 2018; Han et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2019). By equipping drones with cameras, acoustic sensors and sample collection devices (Kloepper & Kinniry, 2018; Madden et al., 2022; Pirotta et al., 2017; Shelare et al., 2021), fine‐scale data can be remotely gathered from a specific region of interest, reducing both the risk to the human investigator and disturbance to species. Despite the advantages of UAV mobility, one concern is the noise of the device, which can impact both humans and wildlife (Schad & Fischer, 2022; Schäffer et al., 2021; Wich et al., 2021).…”