易胜博官网

Can you hear that? All around us, in every moment, is an entire world of sound. With acoustic technology, 易胜博官网 researchers are painting a picture of what is happening on Earth, under its oceans and between some of its smallest creatures. Their findings are helping us better understand topics ranging from how new technologies affect endangered species to how to best mitigate oil spills.

Acoustics provide minimally invasive ways to capture data on the impact of noise on humans and animals. That鈥檚 the strategy used by Dan Howard, assistant professor of , whose bug-filled lab primarily listens to insects to learn how they communicate and are affected by the noisy world around them.

On a typical morning, Mia Phillips, a master鈥檚 degree student studying , is investigating the potential effects of wind turbine-induced noise on American burying beetles, an endangered species, while fellow master鈥檚 degree student Sarah Dodgin is weeding through approximately 50,000 one-minute audio 铿乴es to assess the consequences of prescribed grassland 铿乺es to biodiversity.

Listening in the wild provides many opportunities to 鈥渕onitor the heartbeat of the ecosystem,鈥� Howard says. 鈥淎re there changes that coincide with climate change models? What do those changes reflect or signify?鈥�

Michael Palace and Ruth Varner of the d and the are using hydrophones to identify the presence of methane below the water and land surface of the Arctic Circle 鈥� critical information for ongoing work in climate change. 鈥淲etlands and lakes are a large, natural source of methane,鈥� says Varner, professor of Earth sciences, explaining hydrophones let them 鈥渉ear鈥� methane bubbles to learn how often they occur and how much methane is emitted.

鈥淭he sensors we fabricate are inexpensive, and this has allowed us to deploy them at many sites and, at these sites, cover the landscape in a way not previously available,鈥� says Palace, an associate professor of environmental science.

It鈥檚 important, Varner says, to know how these natural ecosystems are behaving to inform models of methane emissions that will ultimately help predict how this emission pathway may change as the climate does.

At the , where acoustical research has made possible the detailed maps that give the center world-renowned status, Thomas Weber and Jennifer Miksis-Olds have been back-to-back recipients of the Medwin Prize in Acoustical Oceanography from the Acoustical Society of America.

Weber, an associate professor of , uses sonar technology to identify methane bubbles in the water column. The importance of this research, he explains, is to gather objective data to inform decisions ranging from how to best mitigate oil spills to addressing climate change. 鈥淢ost of our planet is ocean. That鈥檚 extremely important for things like climate, modeling for weather and daily life,鈥� Weber says.

Weber explains how acoustics provide researchers the chance to 鈥渟ee鈥� below the ocean, 鈥渁llowing humans to explore its many facets as a habitat, resource, recreational area and even a military battle space.鈥� With acoustics, for example, his team can detect gas bubbles just a few millimeters in radius in 1,500 meters of ocean. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 pretty amazing. The scale is just enormous.鈥�

鈥淭he oceans are continually changing, and we can use sound to monitor that change 鈥� and hopefully to predict change before it happens.鈥�

On more than one occasion, Weber鈥檚 research has taken him to the Gulf of Mexico to investigate oil spills. His team, which includes graduate students like Alexandra Padilla, who came to 易胜博官网 from the University of Puerto Rico to pursue her doctorate under his guidance, is using acoustics to develop methods to help responders understand what is happening beneath the ocean鈥檚 surface. 鈥淒ispersants are toxic, so you want your response to be measured and accurate,鈥� Weber says. Acoustic research can provide the information to do just that.

The work has long-term implications as well. 鈥淐limate is changing. We want to understand the causes and the contributors, and what are the impacts of warming oceans on methane gas bubbles? What is their role in climate change? We need to provide evidence to assess what is happening and to what extent,鈥� Weber says.

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For Miksis-Olds, the associate director of research for the , the 鈥渨hy鈥� behind underwater eavesdropping includes learning about ocean conditions like wind speed and ice cover as well as marine life.

鈥淭he ocean is a naturally noisy place with animals, wind, waves and ice,鈥� she explains. 鈥淲e are examining the question of how human impact comes into play: How does it 鈥� or does it 鈥� affect marine life?鈥�

Miksis-Olds is lead principal investigator of the for the U.S. mid- and south Atlantic outer continental shelf, which aims to generate long-term measurements of both natural and human factors in the region. 鈥淭his is extremely important baseline information as our country considers development in that area for energy resources,鈥� she explains.

Miksis-Olds leads the new Northeast Regional Environmental Acoustics Working Group, which includes Howard and Weber. Funded through 易胜博官网鈥檚 Collaborative Research Excellence Initiative, the group aims to build interdisciplinary partnerships to address issues related to environmental acoustics.

She sums up the big-picture importance of acoustical research: 鈥淲e can learn a lot about the environment by listening. We can do a lot of environmental monitoring that will help protect our ocean resources.鈥�