The soundscape of the Anthropocene ocean

Duarte, Carlos M and Chapuis, Lucille and Collin, Shaun P and Costa, Daniel P and Devassy, Reny P and Eguiluz, Victor M and Erbe, Christine and Gordon, Timothy A C and Halpern, Benjamin S and Harding, Harry R and Havlik, Michelle N and Meekan, Mark and Merchant, Nathan D and Miksis-olds, Jennifer L and Parsons, Miles and Predragovic, Milica and Radford, Andrew N and Radford, Craig A and Simpson, Stephen D and Slabbekoorn, Hans and Staaterman, Erica and Opzeeland, Ilse C Van and Winderen, Jana and Zhang, Xiangliang and Juanes, Francis (2021) The soundscape of the Anthropocene ocean. Science, 371 (6529): eaba4658. ISSN 0036-8075

Abstract

Oceans have become substantially noisier since the Industrial Revolution. Shipping, resource exploration, and infrastructure development have increased the anthrophony (sounds generated by human activities), whereas the biophony (sounds of biological origin) has been reduced by hunting, fishing, and habitat degradation. Climate change is affecting geophony (abiotic, natural sounds). Existing evidence shows that anthrophony affects marine animals at multiple levels, including their behavior, physiology, and, in extreme cases, survival. This should prompt management actions to deploy existing solutions to reduce noise levels in the ocean, thereby allowing marine animals to reestablish their use of ocean sound as a central ecological trait in a healthy ocean.