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Biodiversity is declining worldwide, but few know that this is even audible. The fact that ecosystems are becoming increasingly quiet is a concern for many researchers.
Frankfurt – Nature is loud and it gives researchers a lot of information with its noises. Each ecosystem has its own acoustic signature that can be used to measure biodiversity. Based on the background noise, experts made a disturbing discovery: nature is becoming increasingly quiet – Density and biodiversity are already being lost in many habitats. Because a loss of one species affects the abundance of other species, the loss of familiar sounds, such as the songs of some birds, could also follow.
Dead silence in many ecosystems: the extinction of species is audible to researchers
Acoustic data has long been used to monitor the health of ecosystems and conservation efforts, the British newspaper reports The Guardian. But what the researchers found gives cause for concern in science and nature conservation.
There is already a “deadly calm” in many ecosystems, explains Steve Simpson from the University of Bristol. “It's a race against time – we've only just discovered that they make such noises and we're already hearing them disappear.” US noise expert Bernie Krause even estimates that 70 percent of the noises in many habitats have disappeared. The extinction of species is influenced by climate change.
Species extinction can be heard through noise – both on land, in the air and in the water
There are even photographs of habitats that no longer exist and whose species can no longer be assigned. “In that sense, they are already acoustic fossils,” explained Bryan Pijanowski from Purdue University in the US. The fact that the sound landscapes are changing significantly has already been established, for example in a study from a specialist journal Naturewhich examined over 200,000 locations in Europe and Northern Europe.
The loss of noise affects soil and forests as well as air and water. Simpson, who has been observing coral reefs for more than 20 years, explains: “A healthy reef was a carnival of noises.” In recent years there has been a major coral die-off, which the researcher can hear. For the researcher it is a “dead silence,” says Simpson. According to the report, the population of many species has declined by up to 70 percent in the last 50 years – a drastic change that has far-reaching effects. It is all the more gratifying when one Species thought to be extinct are reappearing. (kiba)
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