Gabriel Marcacci

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Postdoc at Swiss Ornithological Institute

BirdNET is a popular machine learning tool for automated recognition of bird sounds. Here we evaluate how BirdNET settings affect the model performance both at vocalization and species levels, using 4,225 one-minute recordings from 67 recording locations worldwide. Giving equal importance to recall and precision, a low confidence score threshold (0...

Aim The urgency for remote, reliable and scalable biodiversity monitoring amidst mounting human pressures on ecosystems has sparked worldwide interest in Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM), which can track life underwater and on land. However, we lack a unified methodology to report this sampling effort and a comprehensive overview of PAM coverage t...

The combined effects of anthropogenic pressures and climate change are primary causes of land degradation. In the Sahel region, livestock grazing and deforestation threatens ecosystems and the livelihoods of rural communities dependent upon them. Urgent restoration efforts are needed, often structured in large-scale top-down initiatives, while loca...

Under the current global biodiversity crisis, there is a need for automated and non-invasive monitoring techniques that are able to gather large amounts of information cost-effectively at large scales. One such technique is passive acoustic monitoring, which is commonly coupled with automatic identification of animal species based on their sound. A...

The need for remote, reliable, and scalable monitoring of plummeting biodiversity amidst mounting human pressures on ecosystems and changing climate has sparked enormous interest in Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) over multiple disciplines and ecosystems. Even though PAM could support UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Biodiversity I...

Research Highlight: Birch, B. D. J., Mills, S. C., Socolar, J. B., Martínez‐Revelo, D. E., Haugaasen, T., & Edwards, D. P. (2024). Land sparing outperforms land sharing for Amazonian bird communities regardless of surrounding landscape context. Journal of Applied Ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365‐2664.14596. Tropical forests are globally threat...

Urbanization is a major driver of biodiversity change but how it interacts with spatial and temporal gradients to influence the dynamics of plant–pollinator networks is poorly understood, especially in tropical urbanization hotspots. Here, we analysed the drivers of environmental, spatial and temporal turnover of plant–pollinator interactions (inte...

Expanding cities increasingly encroach fertile farmlands, questioning the viability of maintaining agriculture within and around them. Yet, our knowledge on how urbanization influences pollinator communities and the provision of pollination services to crops is limited, especially for the urbanization hotspots of the Global South. Mango Mangifera i...

tStrengthening participation of Global South researchers in tropical ecology and conservation is a target ofour scientific community, but strategies for fostering increased engagement are mostly directed at GlobalNorth institutions and researchers. Whereas such approaches are crucial, there are unique challenges toaddressing diversity, equity and i...

The populations of Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds (breeding in Europe and overwintering in Africa) are declining and conservation efforts to halt or reverse their decline have failed to meet their targets. Yet, most studies and conservation measures focus on migratory landbirds’ breeding grounds, whereas knowledge about threats, drivers of the...

Knowledge on insect migration is scattered, and we are only starting to grasp the extent and ecological impacts of their massive seasonal bioflows. Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are one group of insects which partake in these long‐distance journeys, which are thought to have important ecological consequences including pollination, biocontrol and...

Urbanization poses a major threat to biodiversity and food security, as expanding cities, especially in the Global South, increasingly compete with natural and agricultural lands. However, the impact of urban expansion on agricultural biodiversity in tropical regions is overlooked. Here we assess how urbanization affects the functional response of...

The intensification of farming practices exerts detrimental effects on biodiversity. Most research has focused on declines in species richness at local scales (alpha‐diversity) although species loss is exacerbated by biotic homogenization that operates at larger scales (i.e. affecting beta‐diversity). The majority of studies have been conducted in...

Urbanization is a major driver of land use change and biodiversity decline. While most of the ongoing and future urbanization hot spots are located in the Global South, the impact of urban expansion on agricultural biodiversity and associated functions and services in these regions has widely been neglected. Additionally, most studies assess biodiv...

Agricultural intensification and land‐use changes are major factors impacting farmland biodiversity. The Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana is the long‐distance trans‐Saharan migratory passerine that has undergone the most dramatic decline among all European farmland birds. Factors responsible for this decline may originate from the breeding ground...

While the Western World is facing an inexorable decline of its farmland biodiversity following continuous in-tensification of production modes, agricultural landscapes in Africa are still largely dominated by small-scale subsistence farming operated by smallholders, mostly harbouring high biodiversity. However, as most African countries are confron...