Climate change is breaking Earth's beat

International audienceForests, deserts, rivers, and oceans are filled with animal vocalizations and geological sounds. We postulate that climate change is changing the Earth's natural acoustic fabric. In particular, we identify shifts in acoustic structure that all sound-sensitive organisms, marine and terrestrial, may experience. Only upstream solutions might mitigate these acoustic changes

Three new pentacyclic triterpenoids from twigs of Manniophyton fulvum (Euphorbiaceae)

Phytochemical investigation of the methanol extracts of the twigs of Manniophyton fulvum has led to the isolation and characterization of three new pentacyclic triterpenoids, designated as 3α,28-dihydroxyfriedelan-1-one (1), manniotaraxerol A (3) and manniotaraxerol B (4), along with fourteen known compounds, 3α-hydroxy-1-oxofriedelane (2), betulinic acid (5), friedelin (S1), taraxerol (S2), a mixture of stigmasterol (S3) and β-sitosterol (S4), herranone (S5), docosanoic acid (S6), ursolic acid (S7), nasutin B (S8), bergenin (S9), stigmasterol-3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (S10), 1,2-di-O-palmitoyl-3-O-(6-sulfo-α-d-quinovopyranosyl)glycerol (S11), and aridanin (S12). The structures of all compounds were determined by comprehensive spectroscopic analyses (1D and 2D NMR, EI and ESI-MS). 3α,28-Dihydroxyfriedelan-1-one (1), 3α-hydroxy-1-oxofriedelane (2), manniotaraxerol A (3), manniotaraxerol B (4), and betulinic acid (5) were evaluated against HeLa (human cervix adenocarcinoma) cancer cells. Manniotaraxerol A (3) showed weak in vitro cytotoxicity with a cell viability value of 49.3%. Betulinic acid (5) also showed significant cytotoxicity against HeLa cell with a cell viability value of 4.0%; the other compounds were inactive in this test

Using ecoacoustic methods to survey the impacts of climate change on biodiversity

Climate change is an important cause of the irreversible transformation of habitats, of the rapid extinction of species, and of the dramatic changes in entire communities, especially for tropical assemblages and for habitat- and range-restricted species, such as mountaintop and polar species. In particular, climate change effects several aspects of animal sounds (e.g., song amplitude and frequency, song post, and sound phenology). Animal sounds, which are life traits characterized by high plasticity, are able to cope with even modest variations of environmental fundamentals like vegetation cover, land mosaic structure, temperature, humidity, and pH (for aquatic medium). Moreover, the climatic effects on these biophonies can be observed earlier than change in vegetation patterns and visible landscape structures. Ecoacoustics, the discipline that investigates the role of sound on animal ecology from species to landscapes, offers robust models, such as acoustic adaptation, acoustic niche, acoustic active space, acoustic community, and acoustic phenology to investigate the effect of climate change on species, populations, communities, and landscapes. From an operational perspective, ecoacoustics procedures can be applied in different contexts, such as locations, weather, species, populations, behavior, physiology, and phenology. In addition, thematic priorities can be select- ed, such as latitudinal and altitudinal gradients, restricted habitats, stopover areas, extreme environments, weather conditions, short distance migrants, species at high vocal plasticity, sink-source status, active space, social attraction, physiological modifications, dawn and dusk choruses, sound from stressed plants, and time series analysis. The noninvasiveness of passive acoustic recording, the simultaneous collection of important data, such as community richness and diversity, immigration and extinction events, and singing dynamics as well as the availability of innovative noninvasive technologies operating over a long-term period, establish ecoacoustics as a new and important tool with which it is possible to analyze massive acoustic data sets and quickly predict and/or evaluate the effects of climate change on the environment. Moreover, passive recording is supported by cheap, user-friendly field sensors and robust data processing and may be part of the citizen science research agenda on climate change

Climate Change Is Breaking Earth’s Beat

Forests, deserts, rivers, and oceans are filled with animal vocalizations and geological sounds. We postulate that climate change is changing the Earth’s natural acoustic fabric. In particular, we identify shifts in acoustic structure that all sound-sensitive organisms, marine and terrestrial, may experience. Only upstream solutions might mitigate these acoustic changes

Characterizing amplitude and frequency modulation cues in natural soundscapes: A pilot study on four habitats of a biosphere reserve

International audienceNatural soundscapes correspond to the acoustical patterns produced by biological and geophysical sound sources at different spatial and temporal scales for a given habitat. This pilot study aims to characterize the temporal-modulation information available to humans when perceiving variations in soundscapes within and across natural habitats. This is addressed by processing soundscapes from a previous study [Krause, Gage, and Joo. (2011). Landscape Ecol. 26, 1247] via models of human auditory processing extracting modulation at the output of cochlear filters. The soundscapes represent combinations of elevation, animal, and vegetation diversity in four habitats of the biosphere reserve in the Sequoia National Park (Sierra Nevada, USA). Bayesian statistical analysis and support vector machine classifiers indicate that: (i) amplitude-modulation (AM) and frequency-modulation (FM) spectra distinguish the soundscapes associated with each habitat; and (ii) for each habitat, diurnal and seasonal variations are associated with salient changes in AM and FM cues at rates between about 1 and 100 Hz in the low (1-3 kHz) audio-frequency range. Support vector machine classifications further indicate that soundscape variations can be classified accurately based on these perceptually inspired representations

Melodies of God : Significance of the Soundscape in Conserving the Great Zimbabwe Landscape

Sacred cultural landscapes require a holistic approach in terms of their conservation. They are intimate spaces which are susceptible to cultural erosion if the focus is on a few elements that heritage practitioners think are important. Mainstream conservation theories and processes, developed from western philosophies, however, emphasises on the preservation of material remains. But there intimate connections between people and place which if eroded can result in erasure of memory and ultimately the un-inheriting of the heritage place. Soundscapes, the relationship between people and the sounds around them, is a novel way to understand these intimate and emotional connections that people have in places. Using the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage site, I examine how local communities cultivate deep connections and sustain memory of place through their preservation of the intangible. A series of events at Great Zimbabwe have clearly shown that the soundscapes represent intimate connections between local communities and the cultural landscape and how the preservation of this soundscape can enhance the conservation of the tangible heritage in this sacred landscape. This paper examines how the soundscape of the Great Zimbabwe cultural landscape is used to preserve memory and sustain connections between the people and the landscape