Digital listening is being used to observe and preserve our natural environment. Scientists are using microphones to cover the globe. The AudioMoth is a handheld device that is small and not much larger than a credit card. Elephants, whales, mice, bats, and even plants make sounds that can be detected by these devices.
Our newfound listening powers will allow us to discover new species, measure the health of the environment, and even rediscover species that were thought to be extinct in the past.
The evolution of sounds made by forested wetlands in northern Wisconsin is being documented by silvicultural researchers. Climate change results in a reduction in water availability.
In the Indian Ocean, researchers from the University of New South Wales found a new population of pygmy blue whales, which are difficult to detect visually but whose powerful songs gave them away.
We will create a zoological version of Google Translate, which will be able to read nonhuman vocalizations. Many more species have cultural dialects, individual names, and possibly oral histories.
Natural language processing techniques are being used to decode sperm whale communication. Innovations are being used to protect animals. Lucy King, who discovered that elephants use specific vocal signals for specific threats like honeybees and hunters, is now training farmers across Africa to build acoustic honeybee fences to ward off marauding elephants.
Efforts are being made to domesticate new species. Researchers at the Free University of Berlin have created artificial intelligence that can communicate with bees. The robots will be inserted into the hive to coordinate and direct honeybee behavior.
Digital bioacoustics will show the vulnerability of living organisms to the global epidemic of noise pollution, which not only increases the risk of heart attacks and dementia in humans but can stress, maim, or even kill other species. Eco-acousticians have documented the degradation of landscapes from tourist-laden national parks to the depths of the ocean. Historical reconstructions of lost sounds are being created by researchers. New regulations for noise pollution from commercial shipping will be enacted in 2023. Automatic enforcement will be achieved by new technologies, such as noise radars on Parisian streets.
Digital bioacoustics will be used by scientists in the years to come. In order to restore coral reefs in Indonesia, researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Edinburgh have installed underwater sound systems that are powered by recordings of healthy reefs.
Tech companies such as Microsoft will use artificial intelligence to help researchers process and analyze large volumes of bioacoustics recordings. Big Tech's support has raised concerns from groups like the Coalition for Digital EnvironmentalSustainability. A new framework that treats environmental data as a global commons, establishes open global standards and governance frameworks for environment data as a digital public good will be developed by the United Nations Environment Program. There is a debate over the dangers of capitalism in the environment. We hope that using digital bioacoustics to expand our ability to monitor the environment, regenerate the ecosystems, and engage in rudimentary attempts at interspecies communication will deepen humanity's affinity with other species, instead of enabling us to further domesticate and dominate them.
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