Our oceans aren’t just warming — they sound different
Type
News Clipping
Authors
Category
Article
[ Browse Items ]
Publication Year
2022
Publisher
National Observer, Canada
URL
[ private ]
Abstract
Wander into nature and give a good shout and only nearby birds, frogs, and squirrels will hear you. Although sensing noise is a critical survival strategy for land animals, it’s a somewhat limited warning system, as sounds — save for something like a massive volcanic explosion — don’t travel far in the air. They propagate much better through water, with undersea noises travelling hundreds or even thousands of miles, depending on the conditions.
GET TOP STORIES IN YOUR INBOX.
Email *
Your email address
Those conditions are rapidly transforming as the oceans warm. Changes in salinity, temperature and pressure change how the sea sounds, with unknown impacts on the life forms that depend on that noise to survive. Whales talk amongst themselves and navigate with Earth’s tones by listening to waves breaking on shorelines. Dolphins echolocate their prey with blasts of sound. Coral-dwelling fishes are born in the open ocean, but then use the noises of the bustling reef to find home. And joining the sounds of life are the sounds of Earth systems: Winds scour the surface of the sea, which takes an extra pounding during storms. Earthquakes and submarine landslides send rumbles across whole oceans. The resulting tsunamis speed along the surface, making a racket — which marine animals are perfectly accustomed to.
It’s a critical, and critically understudied, aspect of how rising temperatures — and increasing noisy activity like shipping — might be affecting marine ecology. “The soundscape of nature really only came to the forefront of people's thinking in the last 10 or 15 years,” says Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara who studies pressures on ocean ecosystems. Scientists are now, for instance, getting a better idea of forest biodiversity by listening for life — insects, birds, amphibians — that might be hidden from the human eye. “It's only more recently that people are starting to be aware of the role of soundscapes in oceans, telling us a story about what's happening underwater as human impacts expand,” adds Halpern...
GET TOP STORIES IN YOUR INBOX.
Email *
Your email address
Those conditions are rapidly transforming as the oceans warm. Changes in salinity, temperature and pressure change how the sea sounds, with unknown impacts on the life forms that depend on that noise to survive. Whales talk amongst themselves and navigate with Earth’s tones by listening to waves breaking on shorelines. Dolphins echolocate their prey with blasts of sound. Coral-dwelling fishes are born in the open ocean, but then use the noises of the bustling reef to find home. And joining the sounds of life are the sounds of Earth systems: Winds scour the surface of the sea, which takes an extra pounding during storms. Earthquakes and submarine landslides send rumbles across whole oceans. The resulting tsunamis speed along the surface, making a racket — which marine animals are perfectly accustomed to.
It’s a critical, and critically understudied, aspect of how rising temperatures — and increasing noisy activity like shipping — might be affecting marine ecology. “The soundscape of nature really only came to the forefront of people's thinking in the last 10 or 15 years,” says Ben Halpern, a marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara who studies pressures on ocean ecosystems. Scientists are now, for instance, getting a better idea of forest biodiversity by listening for life — insects, birds, amphibians — that might be hidden from the human eye. “It's only more recently that people are starting to be aware of the role of soundscapes in oceans, telling us a story about what's happening underwater as human impacts expand,” adds Halpern...
Description
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/04/20/news/our-oceans-arent-just-warming-they-sound-different
Number of Copies
1
