Soundscape represents the ecological domain of acoustic signals generated from biotic and abiotic themes in the environment. Investigating spatio-temporal patterns of soundscape, we are able to eavesdrop occurrence and behaviors of vocal species, changes of the environment, anthropogenic activities, and the interactions between them. Acoustic techniques have been increasingly adopted by ecologists in understanding of phenological patterns, species diversity, ecosystem integrity, and how human impact biodiversity. Precise and accurate extraction of acoustic information from sound recordings is critical for implantation of acoustics in biodiversity monitoring. Deployment of effective analytic tools by experienced people is therefore necessary for bioacoustics research, especially for those comparing large quantity of data from different sources. This is apparently challenging for low-income regions, e.g. most Southeast Asian countries, where funding is usually limited to afford expensive commercial tools and knowledge of bioacoustics techniques is generally lack. The Asian Soundscape Network (soundscape.twgrid.org), established by Academia Sinica (www.sinica.edu.tw) and Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (www.tfri.gov.tw) in 2014, aims to establish carrying capacity for and to promote bioacoustics studies in East and Southeast Asia. To date, the team has established 18 long-term acoustic monitoring sites for terrestrial audible soundscape from 4 countries in the region and set up an online open-assessed platform for data management, query, listening, and visualization for audible soundscapes. With a support from Asi@Connect and APAN (All Partners Access Network) infrastructure, our next step is to design a new web portal equipped with functions of big data workflow, extensive machine-learning analysis services, and metadata management for terrestrial audible and ultra-soundscape, and marine soundscape studies. Our ultimate goals are to provide a user-friendly platform for general users, to boot up the development of bioacoustics studies, and to form a regional research network on soundscapes in the region.
