From the “Boeing” of a minke whale to the “drum” of a red piranha, scientists are documenting more sounds in our world’s oceans, rivers and lakes every year. Now, a team of experts wants to go ahead and create a water noise reference library to monitor the health of marine ecosystems.
The Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds, “Glubs,” will include all the “thwop,” “muah,” and “boop” of a humpback whale as well as man-made underwater sounds and recordings of ice vortex and geophysical winds, according to a Research in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
Of the approximately 250,000 known marine species, scientists believe all 126 mammals make noise. At least 100 invertebrates and 1,000 of the world’s 34,000 known species of fish are known to make noise, but experts believe many more sounds are waiting to be spotted and recognized.
By bringing together libraries of fish, frogs, and other marine species found together, it is hoped that the library will help identify lullabies, jingles, and jingles of aquatic ecosystems. Some species of fish seem to develop geographic dialects, while the calls of blue whales are known to evolve through time.
“The world’s most abundant habitat is aquatic, rich in sounds produced by a variety of animals,” says lead author Miles Parsons of the Australian Institute of Oceanography. “With biodiversity declining worldwide, and humans relentlessly changing underwater soundscapes, there is a need to document, identify and understand the sources of underwater animal sounds before they potentially disappear.”
In the examples given by experts, the skunks of Madagascar produce different fighting sounds than those of Indonesia. The calls of fin whales differ between populations in the northern and southern hemispheres and throughout the seasons, while the calls of pilot whales are similar all over the world.
Existing sites like fish sounds And FrogID It already hosts a water noise inventory. But it is hoped that a single platform will enable the use of AI identification of unknown noises while also allowing scientists to monitor the health of coral reefs, open oceans and freshwater ecosystems. Under the proposals, the public will be able to contribute their own underwater recordings.
“Collectively, there are now several million recording hours worldwide that can be assessed for a large number of known and yet unidentified biological sounds” (IQOE) and a scientist at Rockefeller University, said Jesse Ausubel, co-founder of the International Pacific Experiment.
Underwater noise monitoring has been used to study the effect of hurricanes and how prey changes its behavior near predators, and to document migration patterns of large whales. Many species of fish and invertebrates are nocturnal, making acoustic monitoring the only viable study method.
“The diversity of human songs includes songs of love and work, lullabies, chants, and chants,” said Ausubel. Marine animals should sing love songs. Perhaps artificial intelligence applied to the World Library can help us understand the words of these and many more.”
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