Scientists record the sound of intact forest

By analysing the composition of sounds in a forest — called a soundscape — scientists can make cost-effective and reliable assessment of the forest, according to a new study conducted in Papua New Guinea.

Mountains covered with dense forest in Papua New Guinea. Image credit: ColinF/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

A soundscape’s saturation refers to the variety of pitches and frequencies found in the sounds. The study confirmed that land-use zones with intact forest cover have significantly higher soundscape saturation.

Autonomous recorders set up at 34 locations in the Adelbert Mountains of Papua New Guinea covered sites ranging from pristine forests to small cacao farms. Led by Zuzana Burivalova, tropical forest ecologist at Princeton University in the United States, the study recorded almost 1,300 hours of sounds in July 2015.

Burivalova and his team found that soundscape saturation peaked at dawn and dusk, likely because most birds and amphibians vocalise in those periods. Sites with less forest cover due to human activity, such as farming, have less saturated soundscapes versus those with high forest cover, such as conservation and hunting zones.

Sound recorders make great tools for environmental assessment because they can be deployed in remote places and work autonomously for long periods.

Furthermore, soundscape data is a permanent record of a specific place and time, so the recorded soundscape can serve as a baseline to compare against future environmental changes. (SciDev.Net)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa

Planetary scientists at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa is actually sodium chloride.

Why life on Earth first got big

Some of the earliest complex organisms on Earth – possibly some of the earliest animals to exist – got big not to compete for food, but to spread their offspring as far as possible.

New map uncovers thousands of unseen seamounts on ocean floor

Scientists have created a new map of the world's seafloor, offering a more vivid picture of the structures that make up the deepest, least-explored parts of the ocean.

Vaccine for Meningitis Shows Some Protection Against Gonorrhea

Scientists have not been able to develop a vaccine against the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea, despite working toward one for more than 100 years.

Carbon hides in sediment, keeping oxygen in atmosphere

A new study by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Harvard University may help settle a long-standing question: how do small amounts of organic carbon become locked away in rock and sediment, preventing it from decomposing?

Scientists say excess cerebrospinal fluid may serve as early sign of autism

Scientists from the Universities of California and North Carolina, with several other universities in the United States and Canada, report a strong correlation between abnormal distribution of cerebrospinal fluid in infants and later development of autistic symptoms.