They say a picture paints a thousand words but acoustics is more powerful than any other sense. It conveys a vast density of information that, for the most part, is in our subconscious. Animal song lines and ecosystemsHow ecosystems function An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible. Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun's heat energy More are connected.
Scientists have just discovered that the complexity of the song of the endangered Regent Honeyeater is dependent on the complexity of their habitat. As its ecosystems have become degraded the birds’ songs have become more uniform.
Humans underestimate the significance of acoustics to our own lives, let alone wildlife.
Urban rumble is strongly linked to increased anxiety, depression, hypertension, high blood pressure and heart disease[1]. It even reduces our children’s ability to learn to speak properly [2]. It’s because our brains get stressed by noise. We can’t hear our world and this affects our performance in it.
Like the Regent Honeyeater, the diversity of our languages changes with habitat diversity.
Biologists estimate annual loss of species at 1,000 times or more greater than historic rates, and linguists predict that 50–90% of the world’s languages will disappear by the end of this century [3].
Language, call diversity and acoustics are all essential not because animals use them to attract a mate or create conflict, quite the opposite. Increased ambient noise makes birds like Great Tits more aggressive. In short, increased noise turns urban tits into angry birds[4].
Vocalisation is used to reduce conflict because that enables more animals to fit in around each other without wasting energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More on fighting. It’s one of the main tools animals use to diversity and maintain functioning ecosystems that contribute to clean water and food security for a planet.
As the sound of the Regent Honeyeater disappears from Australian forests, we’re hearing the erosion of ecosystems and this changing acoustic environment is a direct contributor to undermining our own life support systems.
Just another reason why we need to rebuild wildlife populations to have a habitable planet.
1. Passchier-Vermeer, W. and W.F. Passchier, Noise exposure and public health. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2000. 108(suppl 1): p. 123-131.
2. McMillan, B.T.M. and J.R. Saffran, Learning in Complex Environments: The Effects of Background Speech on Early Word Learning. Child Development, 2016. 87(6): p. 1841-1855.
3. Gorenflo, L., et al., Co-occurrence of linguistic and biological diversity in biodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversity? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what we want to do with it. The term is widely and commonly misused, leading to significant misinterpretation of the importance of how animals function on Earth and why they matter a great deal, to human survival. Here I will try to More hotspots and high biodiversity wilderness areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012. 109: p. 8032-7.
4. Akçay, Ç., et al., Song overlapping, ambient noise and territorial aggression in great tits. bioRxiv, 2019: p. 808733.
