EAST LANSING, Mich. — A new scientific field will use sound as a way to understand the ecological characteristics of a landscape and to reconnect people with the importance of natural sounds.
Soundscape ecology, a field being spearheaded by a team of researchers at Michigan State University and Purdue University, will focus on what sounds can tell people about an area. The team’s results can be found in BioScience. In short, natural sound could be used as a critical first indicator of environmental changes, such as shifts in climate, weather patterns, the presence of pollution or other alterations to a landscape.
“Over the years, I’ve realized how important sound is as a metric to examine the health and integrity of ecosystems,” said Stuart Gage, director of MSU’s Remote Environmental Assessment Laboratory. “Being able to publish this paper with my colleagues and former students, is truly a rewarding culmination of my rather long journey into the soundscape.”
In 1968, Gage conducted a bird population census in Canada in which he used birdsong to determine population density. Years later, after returning from a research fellowship in New Zealand, he rekindled his interest in recording and understanding the soundscape and thus reoriented his research efforts to this field.
As a society, people continue to have increased exposure to urban sounds or simply block ambient noise altogether by talking on phones, watching television or listening to music through headphones. When people tune out, they are also blocking out natural sounds as well, Gage said.
Psychologists call the broader disconnect, “Nature Deficit Disorder.” The research team wants to restore the importance of sound to people’s experiences, and Gage believes that reconnecting with sounds will open doors to reconnecting with nature.
“People are becoming encased in their own personal soundscape, and it’s not the soundscape of nature,” Gage said. “It’s kind of an escape from reality, from information overload. But if people are to become good citizens they need to better appreciate and understand their natural environment. They can do that by listening to the heartbeat of the biosphere.”
For more information about soundscape ecology and REAL’s digital acoustics library, visit www.real.msu.edu.
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