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Simplified soundscape functional block diagram. Environmental factors, sound sources and acoustic filters are represented through a source-filter approach. The influence of geophony and biophony on biotic factors introduce feedback loops that partially explain the complexity of soundscape dynamics.
Source publication
The concept of soundscape was originally coined to study the relationship between humans and their sonic environment. Since then, several definitions of soundscapes have been proposed based on musical, acoustical and ecological perspectives. However, the causal mechanisms that underlie soundscapes have often been overlooked. As a consequence, the t...
Citations
... In order to identify the relationship between the different soundscape concepts, Grinfeder et al. (2022) present an alternative partitioning into distal, proximal, and perceptual soundscapes, restricting their focus to biophony and geophony, and excluding antrophony. In this context, distal soundscapes describe the spatial and temporal distribution of sound events in a prespecified area and represent the total acoustic information. ...
... Our approach focuses on the concept of providing a formal view for the description of soundscapes, which considers not only acoustic information (S) at different time points (T ), but also geospatial factors (G), such as vegetation and built environment (e.g., distances to infrastructures such as main roads, parks, schools, etc.). We take into account that the human perception according to the ISO standard (International Organization for Standardization, 2014) as well as the recording possibilities by sensor devices according to the soundscape ecology (Grinfeder et al., 2022) are represented by our formalization (A). In this way, we want to introduce G A S T , intending to provide an interdisciplinary representation of soundscapes to visualize their heterogeneous structure. ...
Soundscapes have been studied by researchers from various disciplines, each with different perspectives, approaches, and terminologies. Consequently, the research field determines the actual concept of a specific soundscape with the associated components and also affects the definition itself. This complicates interdisciplinary communication and comparison of results, especially when research areas are involved which are not directly focused on soundscapes. For this reason, we present a formalization that aims to be independent of the concepts from the various disciplines, with the goal of being able to capture the heterogeneous data structure in one layered model. Our model consists of time-dependent sound sources and geodata that influence the acoustic composition of a soundscape represented by our sensor function. Using a case study, we present the application of our formalization by classifying land use types. For this we analyze soundscapes in the form of recordings from different devices at 23 different locations using three-dimensional convolutional neural networks and frequency correlation matrices. In our results, we present that soundscapes can be grouped into classes, but the given land use categories do not have to correspond to them.
... A goal of ecoacoustics is to understand how these sources interact and influence each other, with a particular focus on biological-anthropogenic acoustic interactions. The concept of soundscape has recently been reframed and expanded to encompass three distinct categories: the distal soundscape, the proximal soundscape, and the perceptual soundscape (Grinfeder et al., 2022). The distal soundscape describes the spatial and temporal variation of acoustic signals within a defined area or environment. ...
Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is emerging as a solution for monitoring species and environmental change over large spatial and temporal scales. However, drawing rigorous conclusions based on acoustic recordings is challenging, as there is no consensus over which approaches are best suited for characterizing marine acoustic environments. Here, we describe the application of multiple machine‐learning techniques to the analysis of two PAM datasets. We combine pre‐trained acoustic classification models (VGGish, NOAA and Google Humpback Whale Detector), dimensionality reduction (UMAP), and balanced random forest algorithms to demonstrate how machine‐learned acoustic features capture different aspects of the marine acoustic environment. The UMAP dimensions derived from VGGish acoustic features exhibited good performance in separating marine mammal vocalizations according to species and locations. RF models trained on the acoustic features performed well for labeled sounds in the 8 kHz range; however, low‐ and high‐frequency sounds could not be classified using this approach. The workflow presented here shows how acoustic feature extraction, visualization, and analysis allow establishing a link between ecologically relevant information and PAM recordings at multiple scales, ranging from large‐scale changes in the environment (i.e., changes in wind speed) to the identification of marine mammal species.
... Following the seminal works of Southworth (1969) and Schafer (1977), the ensemble of sounds emanating from a site at a given time has been defined as a soundscape. The term soundscape has been used in different contexts, including social, acoustic, psychoacoustic, geography, ecological, musical, and artistic studies (Truax, 1999;Westerkamp, 2002;Farina, 2014;Barchiesi et al., 2015;Pasoulas, 2020;Grinfeder et al., 2022b). ...
The concept of a soundscape is found in both ecology and music studies. Nature soundscapes and soundscape compositions are analyzed by both disciplines, respectively, to understand their biological diversity and ecosystem functioning and to interpret their compositional structure. A major challenge for both disciplines is visualizing the information embedded in a large variety of soundscapes and to share it with different audiences, from non-professionals to experts. To analyze soundscapes, both disciplines have independently developed similarity visualizations. However, no attempt has been made yet to combine these two fields of research to improve our ecological and musical perception of environmental sounds through shared similarity analysis methods. In this paper, we introduce a new visualization tool, the soundscape chord diagram (SCD), a circular similarity representation method that can be applied to any type of soundscape, either in ecoacoustics or electroacoustic studies. Our approach consists of visualizing spectral similarities between predefined sound segments based on the computation of a β-diversity acoustic index and on automatic clustering. SCDs were tested on two ecoacoustic forest databases and two electroacoustic soundscape compositions. SCDs were performant for the identification of specific acoustic events and highlighted known diel periods for nature soundscapes and written parts for soundscape compositions. This new visualization tool allows us to easily decipher the structure of musical and ecological acoustic data. SCDs could be applied to a large variety of soundscapes and promote their knowledge and preservation. This study opens a new way of investigating soundscapes at the interface between ecology and music, bringing together science and the arts.
... Utilizing mapping technologies like geographic information systems, soundscape descriptors and critical interaction information, encompassing both anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic impacts, can be effectively represented in a map. This approach can facilitate urban biodiversity modeling, and unveils the mechanisms influencing biodiversity decline (Grinfeder et al., 2022b;McCordic et al., 2021;McKenna et al., 2021;Parsons et al., 2022). Additionally, soundscape maps reflecting perception and human well-being can serve as valuable references for urban planning and management. ...
... In everyday situations, we often find ourselves in noisy acoustic environments, such as busy city streets or crowded restaurants. These are common soundscapes (Grinfeder et al., 2022) in which auditory interference can result from single (e.g., Lorenzi et al., 1999or Kopčo et al., 2010 or multiple sound sources (e.g., Brungart et al., 2005). While there is a wealth of research on the interfering effects of noise when listening to speech (e.g., Cherry, 1953;Shinn-Cunningham, 2008;Sumby & Pollack, 1954), less attention has been given to the interfering effects of noise on the ability to identify the positions of sound sources. ...
Localizing sounds in noisy environments can be challenging. Here, we reproduce real-life soundscapes to investigate the effects of environmental noise on sound localization experience. We evaluated participants' performance and metacognitive assessments, including measures of sound localization effort and confidence, while also tracking their spontaneous head movements. Normal-hearing participants (N = 30) were engaged in a speech-localization task conducted in three common soundscapes that progressively increased in complexity: nature, traffic, and a cocktail party setting. To control visual information and measure behaviors, we used visual virtual reality technology. The results revealed that the complexity of the soundscape had an impact on both performance errors and metacognitive evaluations. Participants reported increased effort and reduced confidence for sound localization in more complex noise environments. On the contrary, the level of soundscape complexity did not influence the use of spontaneous exploratory head-related behaviors. We also observed that, irrespective of the noisy condition, participants who implemented a higher number of head rotations and explored a wider extent of space by rotating their heads made lower localization errors. Interestingly, we found preliminary evidence that an increase in spontaneous head movements, specifically the extent of head rotation, leads to a decrease in perceived effort and an increase in confidence at the single-trial level. These findings expand previous observations regarding sound localization in noisy environments by broadening the perspective to also include metacognitive evaluations, exploratory behaviors and their interactions.
... Research in hearing sciences has provided extensive knowledge about how the human auditory system processes speech and assists communication. In contrast, little is known about how this system processes "natural soundscapes," that is the complex arrangements of biological and geophysical sounds shaped by sound propagation through non-anthropogenic habitats [Grinfeder et al. (2022). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. ...
... For about a century, substantial knowledge has been accumulated about how the human auditory system processes the human voice and speech in a variety of acoustic contexts (e.g., Pardo et al., 2021;Pisoni & Remez, 2005). However, little is known if any about how humans process natural soundscapes, that isaccording to their proximal definition (see below)the complex arrangements of biological and geophysical sounds shaped by sound propagation through non-anthropogenic habitats (Grinfeder et al., 2022;Pijanowski et al., 2011; see also . This lack of information is quite surprising for three fundamental and practical reasons. ...
... As a consequence, natural soundscapes should be composed mainly of (i) biological sounds ("biophony," i.e., animal vocalizations) and (ii) geophysical sounds ("geophony," e.g., wind, rain, streams) both shaped by the sound propagation properties of the habitat under study (Krause, 1987). A recent perspective by Grinfeder et al. (2022) aimed at clarifying further the term "soundscape" the usage of which can be sometimes equivocal across scientific communities despite an ISO definition (ISO 12913-1) limiting this notion to a perceptual and human-centered construct. In an attempt to clarify and reconcile these different usages, Grinfeder et al. (2022) distinguished between distal, proximal and perceptual soundscapes. ...
Research in hearing sciences has provided extensive knowledge about how the human auditory system processes speech and assists communication. In contrast, little is known about how this system processes "natural soundscapes," that is the complex arrangements of biological and geophysical sounds shaped by sound propagation through non-anthropogenic habitats [Grinfeder et al. (2022). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 10: 894232]. This is surprising given that, for many species, the capacity to process natural soundscapes determines survival and reproduction through the ability to represent and monitor the immediate environment. Here we propose a framework to encourage research programmes in the field of "human auditory ecology," focusing on the study of human auditory perception of ecological processes at work in natural habitats. Based on large acoustic databases with high ecological validity, these programmes should investigate the extent to which this presumably ancestral monitoring function of the human auditory system is adapted to specific information conveyed by natural soundscapes, whether it operate throughout the life span or whether it emerges through individual learning or cultural transmission. Beyond fundamental knowledge of human hearing, these programmes should yield a better understanding of how normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners monitor rural and city green and blue spaces and benefit from them, and whether rehabilitation devices (hearing aids and cochlear implants) restore natural soundscape perception and emotional responses back to normal. Importantly, they should also reveal whether and how humans hear the rapid changes in the environment brought about by human activity.
... Over the last decades, a wealth of research in soundscape ecology demonstrated repeatedly that 'natural soundscapes', that is complex arrangements of sounds produced by biological and geophysical sources shaped by (natural) habitat-specific sound propagation effects, reflect important ecological processes, such as presence of living beings and changes in biodiversity (e.g. Pijanowski et al., 2011;Sueur and Farina 2015;Farina and Gage 2017;Sugai et al. 2019;Sethi et al. 2020; for a review see Grinfeder et al. 2022). Two recent studies revealed that normalhearing (NH) people show high sensitivity for natural soundscape discrimination (e.g, forest, grassland), and perceive relatively well changes across habitats and their diel and seasonal variations (Thoret et al. 2020;Apoux et al. 2023). ...
... Two recent studies revealed that normalhearing (NH) people show high sensitivity for natural soundscape discrimination (e.g, forest, grassland), and perceive relatively well changes across habitats and their diel and seasonal variations (Thoret et al. 2020;Apoux et al. 2023). This capacity to build a 'perceptual soundscape' (Grinfeder et al. 2022) should be useful for mapping the nearby environment, navigating, assessing resources and danger, or building a sense of place and time (Fay 2009). However, despite the high adaptive and psychological value of processing natural soundscapes, very little is known about the acoustic cues and mechanisms at work. ...
Objective:
The ability to discriminate natural soundscapes recorded in a temperate terrestrial biome was measured in 15 hearing-impaired (HI) listeners with bilateral, mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss and 15 normal-hearing (NH) controls.
Design:
Soundscape discrimination was measured using a three-interval oddity paradigm and the method of constant stimuli. On each trial, sequences of 2-second recordings varying the habitat, season and period of the day were presented diotically at a nominal SPL of 60 or 80 dB.
Results:
Discrimination scores were above chance level for both groups, but they were poorer for HI than NH listeners. On average, the scores of HI listeners were relatively well accounted for by those of NH listeners tested with stimuli spectrally-shaped to match the frequency-dependent reduction in audibility of individual HI listeners. However, the scores of HI listeners were not significantly correlated with pure-tone audiometric thresholds and age.
Conclusions:
These results indicate that the ability to discriminate natural soundscapes associated with changes in habitat, season and period of the day is disrupted but it is not abolished. The deficits of the HI listeners are partly accounted for by reduced audibility. Supra-threshold auditory deficits and individual listening strategies may also explain differences between NH and HI listeners.
... A soundscape refers to the collection of sounds present in a specific environment or geographic area. Sound intrusiveness, on the other hand, refers to the subjective perception of a sound as annoying, disruptive, or harmful [21]. ...
In forensic acoustics, a possible area of analysis is represented by unwanted sound that is perceived as a source of intrusion or disturbance within a certain auditory context. This context is defined as the “auditory scene” and refers to the set of sounds present in a specific environment. The presence of unwanted sounds in the auditory scene can cause a wide range of negative effects, including disturbance, discomfort, moral or immoral harm, and other types of negative impacts on the health and well-being of individuals exposed to noise. In 2022, the technical specification UNI/TS 11844:2022 dedicated to the measurement and analysis of intrusive noise was published. The standard introduces the concept of intrusive noise and defines its calculation methods based on environmental measurements. The purposes of this technical specification is to provide an objective support to methods already in used in acoustic disputes, where the assessment of the annoyance of a noise is often a subjective evaluation of the technician. This work delves into application to some real cases, identifying the potentiality and limits of the standardized method.
... Looking at the model species, the majority of the studies focused on a single species or a small number of species, although an increasing number of studies worked on more than 10 species (Alquezar et From the perspective of the song variables studied, researchers proposed two families of approaches. A batch of studies developed (e.g., Sueur et al. 2008) or used (e.g., Farina et al. 2015) acoustic indices at the level of the bird community such as acoustic richness, diversity or complexity, promoting the concept of "soundscape" (Grinfeder et al. 2022). As it was not their primary purpose, such studies did not individualize the song response of the different species to human pressures. ...
Disentangling the relative influence of different anthropogenic pressures, landscape composition and biotic conditions on birdsong from species to community levels is challenging. On the basis of a field survey conducted on a breeding bird community in France, we measured the influence of such factors on the timing of birdsongs along an urbanization gradient. First, we found that species can be sorted according to different time song indices, and early singing species are also those with the largest eye sizes. For a given species, birds sing earlier and during shorter period in areas densely built, submitted to high levels of artificial lights, traffic noise, and in areas hosting the lowest conspecific abundances. At the community level, urbanization, and especially highly built and lit areas, leads to a community reassembly promoting late singing species and species singing for short periods. Finally, artificial lights and traffic noise promote a higher species temporal turnover and a lower temporal nestedness of the dawn chorus at the community level: different species tend to sing in a succession rather than in a polyphony. Our results suggest that the full bird chorus, gathering almost all the species singing together in the same time has thus disappeared in the most urbanized areas.
... Few studies investigated two factors such as noise and ALAN simultaneously (but see for From the perspective of the song variables studied, researchers proposed two families of approaches. A batch of studies developed (e.g., Sueur et al. 2008) or used (e.g., Farina et al. 2015) acoustic indices at the level of the bird community such as acoustic richness, diversity or complexity, promoting the concept of "soundscape" (Grinfeder et al. 2022). As it was not their primary purpose, such studies did not individualize the song response of the different species to human pressures. ...
Context
If an animal community can be similar from a city to its outskirts, its rhythm of activity can be modified by anthropogenic pressures. Passive acoustic monitoring techniques offer the opportunity to assess such changes in birdsong along anthropization gradients.
Objectives
Disentangling the relative influence of anthropogenic pressures, landscape composition and the composition of the bird community on the temporal structure of dawn chorus.
Methods
Birdsongs were recorded in France in 36 stations located along an anthropization gradient through passive acoustic devices. The temporal structure of birdsongs was confronted to anthropogenic pressures (artificial lights and traffic noise), landscape composition indices (landscape diversity, areas covered by woodland and buildings) and characteristics of the bird community (abundance, species richness and diversity) around each station.
Results
For a given species, birds tend to sing earlier and during shorter periods in areas densely built, submitted to high levels of artificial lights, traffic noise, and in areas hosting the lowest conspecific abundances. Highly built and lit areas lead to a community reassembly promoting late singing species and species singing for short periods. Artificial lights and traffic noise promote a higher species temporal turnover and a lower temporal nestedness of the dawn chorus at the community level.
Conclusions
In cities, birds tend to sing earlier, during shorter periods, and the different species sing in a succession rather than in a polyphony. The full bird chorus, gathering almost all the species of a community singing together in the same time seems to have disappeared from the most anthropized areas.
