Acoustic Ecology, Sound Stewardship and Sound Art practice in the Seabed Sanctuary Project, Glengarriff, Ireland
Marcus Maeder, February 2024
Acoustic methods are a promising alternative to costly and invasive methods for investigating and assessing biodiversity (Sueur et al., 2008) in different habitats. Ecoacoustics is a young discipline that uses audio recordings to analyse ecological relationships and investigate natural and anthropogenic sounds at multiple scales of time and space (Farina and Gage, 2017). By recording the sounds produced by organisms in an ecosystem, we can potentially learn about their diversity, activities, and communication, while contextualizing their acoustic behavior with environmental parameters
(Farina, 2018).
Ecoacoustic methods are used where changes in the composition and diversity of local biotic communities are to be observed. Ecoacoustic monitoring is already widely used in nature conservation zones, nature parks or in areas where the impact of human activity or construction on wildlife is to be investigated and observed.
The acoustic investigation of local species richness is less costly than an all-taxa biodiversity inventory, and audio recordings can provide much more information about local community compositions by allowing us to hear what we cannot see. Typically, an ecoacoustic investigation involves placing a microphone/hydrophone or recorder array within the environment being studied (Suzuki et al., 2023). Researchers can enhance this setup with acoustic “microscopy” that uses high- end amplifiers and very sensitive acoustic probes to capture the sounds of processes and activities that are not normally perceptible (Maeder and Zweifel, 2016; Maeder et al., 2019).
In the Seabed Sanctuary project, the first step is to acoustically survey the baseline condition of the marine/shoreline ecosystem in the “Iskanafeelna” area near Glengarriff. To this end, three underwater microphones will be installed on the seabed and connected to automatic recorders placed on land/on an island close by. The sounds on land will also be recorded. A weather station will record the local microclimatic conditions and a salinity and temperature sensor will measure the conditions in the water.
Once the sculpture park is installed, the measurement infrastructure will monitor how the acoustic diversity (the acoustically measured biodiversity) develops in the sanctuary: Is it increasing because the sculptures provide more habitat for marine organisms? What influence does visitor activity/ship traffic have on the activity and diversity of the local fauna?
Sound Stewardship/Sonic Restoration
Recent projects in acoustic ecology not only observe ecosystems passively, but also attempt to restore them using acoustic means (Rillig et al., 2023; Znidersic and Watson, 2021), i.e. to reactivate them by means of active sound and thus, for example, to attract lost species back into communities (Pysanczyn et al., 2023). To date, there have only been a handful of studies in which the technical reproduction of sounds has been used to stimulate the resettlement of organisms, such as coral and fish larvae (Gordon et al., 2019; McAfee et al., 2023).
The Seabed Sanctuary project is perfectly suited to actively explore and test such methods: Individual sculptures can be equipped with underwater sonication technology to attract larvae of various marine species and stimulate them to colonize the sanctuary/sculpture garden. Here too, sufficient replication is required – the monitoring units in the non-sonicated areas serve as a control.
Sound Art
The recordings and measurements in the Seabed Sanctuary are to be used for various artistic products and productions in order to draw attention to the importance of protecting marine ecosystems in an artistic way. Be it sound installations, music compositions, listening sessions or lectures with field recordings: the audio material obtained can be used and deployed in an extremely versatile way and enables a sensual, direct experience of the Sanctuary even far away from Bantry Bay.
Links
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3469-0172
References
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