State of play in marine soundscape assessments

A soundscape is the recording of all sounds present in an area, creating a holistic view of the acoustic profile in an ecosystem. Studying acoustic parameters of marine soundscapes as a whole has been shown to give an indication of the health status of the location, as well as correlate to which species may be present and using the area. With the rapid innovation of technology, especially data storage and declining cost of equipment, marine soundscape research is fast increasing, and these previous limitations have been switched for computing capacity for data analysis. Here, we perform a systematic assessment of literature of marine soundscape studies, from 1978, when the first soundscape study was reported, until 2021. We identified 200 primary research studies that recorded soundscapes and captured their geographical location, depth, habitat, duration of the study, and number of sites in each study. Using this data, we summarize the state of play in marine soundscapes studies, and identify knowledge gaps in the spatial coverage, depth profiles, habitat representation and study duration. Spatially, studies are biased towards the northern hemisphere. They are also more prevalent in more easily accessible ecosystems, in order from most to least studied, in coastal (38%), pelagic (20%), tropical coral reef (17%), rocky reef (7%), polar (5.5%), seagrass meadows, oyster reef and kelp/algal forest (4000 m. With anthropogenic noise and other pollution sources increasing globally, these gaps in research should be further addressed, especially as they pertain to vulnerable ecosystems, many of which are affected by global climate change and anthropogenic influences. It is crucial that marine soundscape studies continue to be developed and pursued, to establish baselines for healthy ecosystems and/or document recovery following management actions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Rebuilding marine life

The UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. Achieving this goal will require rebuilding the marine life-support systems that deliver the many benefits society receives from a healthy ocean. In this Review we document the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions. Recovery rates across studies suggest that substantial recovery of the abundance, structure, and function of marine life could be achieved by 2050, should major pressures, including climate change, be mitigated. Rebuilding marine life represents a doable Grand Challenge for humanity, and ethical obligation, and a smart economic objective to achieve a sustainable future

A systematic literature review of climate change research on Europe's threatened commercial fish species

Climate change poses a major challenge for global marine ecosystems and species, leading to a wide range of biological and social-ecological impacts. Fisheries are among the well-known sectors influenced by multiple effects of climate change, with associated impacts highly variable among species and regions. To successfully manage fisheries, scientific evidence about the potential direct and indirect impacts of climate change on the species targeted by fisheries is needed to inform decision-making processes. This is particularly pertinent for fisheries within European seas, as they include some of the fastest warming water bodies globally, and are thus experiencing some of the greatest impacts. Here, we systematically examine the existing scientific climate-related literature of 68 species that are both commercially important in European seas and considered threatened ac-cording to the IUCN Red List to understand the extent of information that is available to inform fisheries management and identify critical knowledge gaps that can help to direct future research effort. We also explore the climate and fishing vulnerability indices of species as potential drivers of current scientific attention. We found no literature for most of these species (n = 45), and for many others (n = 19) we found fewer than five papers studying them. Climate change related research was dominated by a few species (i.e., Atlantic salmon, European pilchard, and Atlantic bluefin tuna) and regions, such as the Northeast Atlantic, revealing a highly uneven distribution of research efforts across European seas. Most studies were biologically focused and included how abundance, distribution, and physiology may be affected by warming. Few studies incorporated some level of social-ecological information. Moreover, it appears that research on species with high climate and fishing vulnerabilities is not currently prioritized. These results highlight a gap in our understanding of how climate change can impact already threatened species and the people who depend on them for food and income. Our findings also suggest that future climate-specific adaptation measures will likely suffer from a lack of robust information. More research is needed to include all the species from our list, their relevant geographic regions, and subsequent biological and social-ecological implications.La Caixa Foundation LCF/BQ/DI21/11860039, LA/P/0101/2020, ID 100010434info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A systematic literature assessment on the effects of human-altered soundscapes on marine life

A dataset containing the results of a systematic assessment of the literature on the effects of human-altered soundscapes on marine life. This identified 538 peer-reviewed papers that consider how changes in anthrophony, geophony, and biophony affect marine fauna. Papers on the effects of anthrophony are categorised by species, taxonomic group, effect category, statistical outcome, and whether mitigation strategies were tested. Papers considering changes in bio- or geo-phony contain details on the ecosystem where responses were measured, the effect shown, and the statistical outcome

Author Correction: Rebuilding marine life

International audienceA Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03271-2

The soundscape of the Anthropocene ocean

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