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“thwop,” “muah” and “boop” are some of the sounds made by Humpback Whales. David Fleetham/AP
This story was originally published in the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
From the “boing” 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. A team of experts now wants to take it one step further and create an aquatic noise reference library to monitor the health marine ecosystems.
The Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds (GLUBS) will include every “thwop,” “muah” and “boop” of a humpback whale, as well as human-made underwater sounds and records of the geophysical swirl of ice and wind, according to a Paper in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
Scientists believe that all 126 marine species emit noise, out of the 250,000 total. At least 100 invertebrates and 1,000 of the world’s 34,000 known fish species are also known to make noise, but experts believe many more sounds are waiting to be discovered and identified.
It is hoped that the library will help to identify the lullabies of aquatic ecosystems by bringing together existing libraries from fish, frogs and other marine species. Some fish species have been known to develop geographic dialects. Blue whale calls, however, are known to evolve over time.
“The world’s most extensive habitats are aquatic, and they’re rich with sounds produced by a diversity of animals,” says lead author Miles Parsons of the Australian Institute of Marine Science. “With biodiversity in decline worldwide and humans relentlessly altering underwater soundscapes, there is a need to document, quantify and understand the sources of underwater animal sounds before they potentially disappear.”
In the examples given by experts, Madagascar’s skunk anemonefish produces different fighting sounds to those in Indonesia. While fin whale calls vary between populations in the northern and southern hemispheres, and over seasons and years, they are similar to pilot whale calls worldwide.
Existing websites like FishSounds and FrogID already host an inventory of aquatic noise. But it is hoped a single platform would enable the use of artificial intelligence identification of unknown noises while also allowing scientists to monitor the health of reefs, open ocean freshwater ecosystems. The public would be able submit their own underwater recordings under the proposals.
“Collectively, there are now many millions of recording hours around the world that could potentially be assessed for a plethora of both known and, to date, unidentified biological sounds,” said Jesse Ausubel, one of the founders of the International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE) and a scientist at the Rockefeller University.
To study the effects of hurricanes on prey behavior, and document the migration patterns and movements of great whales, underwater noise monitoring has been used. Many fish and invertebrate species can be found nocturnal. This makes audio monitoring a viable study method.
“Human song varieties include love and work songs, lullabies, chants, and anthems,” said Ausubel. “Marine animals must sing love songs. Maybe AI applied to the global library can help us understand the lyrics of these and many others.”
