Quantifying reef life with bioacoustics


Why should we listen to soundscapes? 

By analyzing soundscapes, researchers can gain insights into ecological attributes such as biodiversity, landscape structure, habitat health, and human disturbance. A suite of acoustic indices have been developed in terrestrial ecosystems to extract these ecological attributes from acoustic recordings. However, acoustic indices have rarely been tested in marine ecosystems despite the fact that traditional habitat assessments are arduous and costly.

What is a soundscape?

Soundscapes encompass all biological, physical, and anthropogenic sounds present at a locality. Researchers are starting to use acoustic data to quantify and describe biotic characteristics of ecosystems.

What's next?
Our goal is to develop soundscape-based habitat assessment methods by integrating passive acoustic monitoring with biodiversity and drone-based surveys.