Do soundscape indices predict landscape‐scale restoration outcomes? A comparative study of restored seabird island soundscapes

An exploration of ecoacoustics and its applications in conservation ecology

Our planet is facing unprecedented adversity due to the global impacts of climate change and an emerging sixth mass extinction. These impacts are exacerbated by population and industrial growth, where increased resource extraction is required to meet our insatiable demands. Yet, the tangible elements of our lone inhabited planet in the solar system are not the only things disappearing or being modified. The sounds of Earth are being altered in ways that may never be recovered. Indeed, we occupy a noisier world in this age of machines that comes at a great expense in the form of sonic extinctions. It is profoundly apparent, yet not widely recognized, that conservation efforts must consider the importance of the sonic environment (i.e., sonosphere). Although sound has been integral to life for millions of years, our understanding of its ecological role has only just begun. Sounds are one of the most important extensions of the organismic inner world, becoming testimonials of environmental complexity, integration, and relationships between apparently separated parts. From a semiotic perspective, sounds are signals utilized by many organisms to save energy in patrolling, defending, exploring, and navigating their surroundings. Sounds are tools that establish dynamic biological and ecological competencies through refined partitioning in the natural selection process of evolution. Ecoacoustics is a recent scientific discipline that aims to investigate the role of sound in ecological processes. Despite its youth, Ecoacoustics has had rapid theoretical and applied growth, consolidating a diverse array of research on the ecology of sounds across many disciplines. Here, we present how Ecoacoustics plays a significant role in conservation ecology by exploring the discipline's theoretical framework, new descriptors of sonic complexity, and innovative methods for supporting conservation efforts from singular species to entire landscapes across local and global scales. The combination of automated recording units and ecoacoustic indices present a very promising approach to the study of remote areas, rare species, and data rich analyses. While Ecoacoustics scientists continue to explore this new scientific horizon, we encourage others to consider Ecoacoustics in their conservation agendas because of its application to the study and management of terrestrial, marine, and freshwater habitats.

VGGish-based detection of biological sound components and their spatio-temporal variations in a subtropical forest in eastern China

Passive acoustic monitoring technology is widely used to monitor the diversity of vocal animals, but the question of how to quickly extract effective sound patterns remains a challenge due to the difficulty of distinguishing biological sounds within multiple sound sources in a soundscape. In this study, we address the potential application of the VGGish model, pre-trained on Google's AudioSet dataset, for the extraction of acoustic features, together with an unsupervised clustering method based on the Gaussian mixture model, to identify various sound sources from a soundscape of a subtropical forest in China. The results show that different biotic and abiotic components can be distinguished from various confounding sound sources. Birds and insects were the two primary biophony sound sources, and their sounds displayed distinct temporal patterns across both diurnal and monthly time frames and distinct spatial patterns in the landscape. Using the clustering and modeling method of the general sound feature set, we quickly depicted the soundscape in a subtropical forest ecosystem, which could be used to track dynamic changes in the acoustic environment and provide help for biodiversity and ecological environment monitoring.

Exploring the role of soundscape in restorative experience: A pilot study from children’s perspective

Indoor and outdoor noise is renowned for its ability to negatively affect children’s health and performance. However, the possible restorative benefits of everyday soundscapes in children are still poorly understood. This study aimed to explore the role of everyday soundscapes in children’s restorative experiences in frequented indoor (classroom) and outdoor (urban park) environments. In stage one, 335 children (7–12 years old) were interviewed using a questionnaire survey to investigate their restoration needs, restorative experience, and potential restorative sounds. In stage two, 61 children participated in a laboratory study to assess the perceived restorativeness of different soundscapes, which were combinations of potential restorative sounds and background noise, under signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) from −5 to 15 dB. The findings denoted that the children’s need for restoration increased with age significantly. Younger children reported that the role of the sound environment was more important in their classroom experiences than in urban parks. Although the types of music displayed in surveyed parks were generally not preferred by the children, music was assessed as the most restorative sound in the laboratory study. Additionally, natural sounds were perceived to be more restorative than background noise in the context. In particular, birdsong showed more restorativeness in the classroom context, whereas fountain sounds showed more restorativeness in the park context. Additionally, an SNR of at least 5 dB is desirable when considering the restorative experiences of children in classrooms and urban parks.

Community Bioacoustics: Studying Acoustic Community Structure for Ecological and Conservation Insights

The diversity of animal acoustic signals has evolved due to multiple ecological processes, both biotic and abiotic. At the level of communities of signaling animals, these processes may lead to diverse outcomes, including partitioning of acoustic signals along multiple axes (divergent signal parameters, signaling locations, and timing). Acoustic data provides information on the organization, diversity and dynamics of an acoustic community, and thus enables study of ecological change and turnover in a non-intrusive way. In this review, we lay out how community bioacoustics (the study of acoustic community structure and dynamics), has value in ecological monitoring and conservation of diverse landscapes and taxa. First, we review the concepts of signal space, signal partitioning and their effects on the structure of acoustic communities. Next, we highlight how spatiotemporal ecological change is reflected in acoustic community structure, and the potential this presents in monitoring and conservation. As passive acoustic monitoring gains popularity worldwide, we propose that the analytical framework of community bioacoustics has promise in studying the response of entire suites of species (from insects to large whales) to rapid anthropogenic change.