Moritz Mallach

Long-term & autonomous monitoring of aquatic biodiversity with hydroacoustics

As part of the EU project BioDiMoBot, my PhD research develops an underwater acoustic monitoring system that identifies fish species, behavior, and ultimately health status from sound alone. Compared to traditional biodiversity monitoring, this approach is less resource-intensive and non-invasive, and it enables continuous, long-term observation rather than isolated sampling events. The aim is to build a set of acoustic tools to characterize ecosystem health from underwater soundscapes, extending indices already proven in terrestrial and avian bioacoustics to aquatic environments. A second aim is to assess the impact of anthropogenic noise on aquatic species. Ultimately, this monitoring capability will be integrated into an autonomous robotic platform, enabling long-term, low-maintenance ecosystem observation that can serve as an early warning system for ecological stress.