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The Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident led to large‐scale and long‐term evacuation zones in which usual land‐use activities such as farming have been stopped. In particular, the loss of irrigated rice paddies is hypothesized to have seriously impacted freshwater biodiversity. In 2014, we started acoustic monitoring of frogs by using digital voice recorders in and around the evacuation zone. For the monitoring project, 52 and 57 monitoring sites were located within schoolyards (including those that had been converted into community centers) to examine the frog assemblages in the urban and rural landscapes of the region in 2014 and 2015, respectively. At each site, a digital voice recorder was installed during the period from May to July, and we recorded 10 min a day at night using a timed‐recording mode. We divided the audio data into 20‐s segments and identified species recorded in segments sampled from late May to late June (partly in early July). We identified eight frog species from 1,962 audio segments in total (correspond to 4 days per year in principal). For each species, intensity of calling at four levels was also recorded as an index of abundance. We are continuing to monitor and intend to update the dataset with new observations hereafter. Our dataset will support scientists and experts in recognizing the status and dynamics of anuran assemblages in and around the evacuation zone and will contribute to the promotion of open science. The complete data set for this abstract published in the Data Paper section of the journal is available in electronic format in MetaCat in JaLTER at http://db.cger.nies.go.jp/JaLTER/metacat/metacat/ERDP-2020-12.1/jalter-en. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale land abandonment and reconstruction activity has altered the ecosystem structure in the evacuation area for the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident in 2011. Despite social concerns about changes in the avian assemblages that occurred after the accident, publicly accessible data are quite limited. We engaged in acoustic monitoring of birds using digital voice recorders from 2014 in and around the Fukushima evacuation zone. All monitoring sites were located within schoolyards (including those that had been converted to community centers) to examine the bird assemblages in the urban and rural landscapes that were heavily altered by land abandonment due to the nuclear plant accident. A digital voice recorder was installed at each monitoring site during May-July, and we recorded 20 min a day using timer-recording mode. We divided the audio data into 1-min segments and identified species occurred in sampled segments by experts. These data represent the presence-absence records from 52 sites monitored in 2014. In 2014, we identified the species for 7138 segments in total and 68 species occurred. We are continuing to monitor and intend to update the dataset with new observations hereafter. Our dataset will help people to recognize the status and dynamics of avian assemblage inside the evacuation zone, and will contribute to promote open science in avian ecological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]