arXiv subjects

Braden Scherting

Publications and source records attributed to Braden Scherting.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

ForestIR: Physics-Informed Forest Sound Simulation for Array-Based Bioacoustic Remote Sensing

Microphone array-based passive acoustic monitoring is increasingly used for biodiversity sensing in forests. However, design and evaluation of array systems and configurations remains difficult since field recordings are costly, difficult to reproduce, and provide limited control over forest and atmospheric conditions. We present ForestIR, a physics-informed and reproducible simulation framework that links forest and environmental conditions to microphone-array recordings for bioacoustic remote sensing. Through a more realistic sound propagation method and a systematic control over array design and environmental factors, ForestIR provides a practical simulation framework for optimizing array-based monitoring systems, especially for sound source localization purposes. ForestIR generates source-microphone impulse responses (IRs) under user-controlled forest and atmospheric conditions, and renders synthetic array recordings by convolving test signals with controlled background noise. We evaluate and demonstrate realistic features of ForestIR through experiments based on localization sensitivity to forest layout and atmospheric conditions, and also comparison between simulated IRs with sine-sweep IR measurements from a field experiment. ForestIR provides a practical way to test how forest and ground conditions, atmospheric state, and array geometry affect bioacoustic localization, and can support microphone-array design, robustness testing, and synthetic-data generation for passive acoustic monitoring.

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arXiv2025

Model-based indicators for co-clustered environments and species communities

Accurate biodiversity monitoring is essential for effective environmental policy, yet current practices often rely on arbitrarily defined ecosystems, communities, and ad-hoc indicator species, limiting cost-efficiency and reproducibility. We present a model-based framework that infers ecological sub-communities and corresponding indicators in terms of habitat and species from species survey data, such as large-scale arthropod abundance data used here as example. Environments and species are co-clustered using Bayesian decoupling for Poisson factorization. Latent, hierarchical regression relates observable habitat features to each subcommunity. Additionally, we propose a novel, model-based ranking of indicator species based on the learned subcommunities, generalizing classical approaches. This integrated approach motivates model-based ecosystem classification and indicator species selection, offering a scalable, reproducible pathway for biodiversity monitoring and informed conservation.

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arXiv2025

Joint species distribution modeling of abundance data through latent variable barcodes

Accelerating global biodiversity loss has highlighted the role of complex relationships and shared patterns among species in determining their responses to environmental changes. The structure of an ecological community, represented by patterns of dependence among constituent species, signals its robustness more than individual species distributions. We focus on obtaining community-level insights based on underlying patterns in abundances of bird species in Finland. We propose \texttt{barcode}, a modeling framework to infer latent binary and continuous features of samples and species, expanding the class of concurrent ordinations. This approach introduces covariates and spatial autocorrelation hierarchically to facilitate ecological interpretations of the learned features. By analyzing 132 bird species counts, we infer the dominant environmental drivers of the community, species clusters and regions of common profile. Three of the learned drivers correspond to distinct climactic regions with different dominant forest types. Three further drivers are spatially heterogeneous and signal urban, agricultural, and wetland areas, respectively.

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arXiv2023

Wildland Fire Mid-story: A generative modeling approach for representative fuels

Computational models for understanding and predicting fire in wildland and managed lands are increasing in impact. Data characterizing the fuels and environment is needed to continue improvement in the fidelity and reliability of fire outcomes. This paper addresses a gap in the characterization and population of mid-story fuels, which are not easily observable either through traditional survey, where data collection is time consuming, or with remote sensing, where the mid-story is typically obscured by forest canopy. We present a methodology to address populating a mid-story using a generative model for fuel placement that captures key concepts of spatial density and heterogeneity that varies by regional or local environmental conditions. The advantage of using a parameterized generative model is the ability to calibrate (or `tune') the generated fuels based on comparison to limited observation datasets or with expert guidance, and we show how this generative model can balance information from these sources to capture the essential characteristics of the wildland fuels environment. In this paper we emphasize the connection of terrestrial LiDAR (TLS) as the observations used to calibrate of the generative model, as TLS is a promising method for supporting forest fuels assessment. Code for the methods in this paper is available.

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arXiv2021

Pool samples to efficiently estimate pathogen prevalence dynamics

Estimating the prevalence of a disease is necessary for evaluating and mitigating risks of its transmission within or between populations. Estimates that consider how prevalence changes with time provide more information about these risks but are difficult to obtain due to the necessary sampling intensity and commensurate testing costs. We propose pooling and jointly testing multiple samples to reduce testing costs and use a novel nonparametric, hierarchical Bayesian model to infer population prevalence from the pooled test results. This approach is shown to reduce uncertainty compared to individual testing at the same budget and to produce similar estimates compared to individual testing at a much higher budget through two synthetic studies and two case studies of natural infection data.

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