Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Technology is being used in ways that that sometimes hurt, sometimes help, the creatures of the natural world. Today’s story is about helping.

Shweta Varshney at Samachar Central introduces us to the Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds and its wonderful acronym GLUBS. GLUBS uses audio technology to help monitor changes in marine life.

“Of the roughly 250,000 known marine species,” reports Varshney, “scientists think all ~126 marine mammals emit sounds — the ‘thwop’, ‘muah’, and ‘boop’s of a humpback whale, for example, or the ‘boing’ of a minke whale. Audible too are at least 100 invertebrates, 1,000 of the world’s 34,000 known fish species, and likely many thousands more.

“Now a team of 17 experts from nine countries has set a goal of gathering on a single platform huge collections of aquatic life’s tell-tale sounds, and expanding it using new enabling technologies — from highly sophisticated ocean hydrophones and artificial intelligence learning systems to phone apps and underwater GoPros used by citizen scientists.

“The Global Library of Underwater Biological Sounds, ‘GLUBS,’ will underpin a novel non-invasive, affordable way for scientists to listen in on life in marine, brackish and freshwaters, monitor its changing diversity, distribution and abundance, and identify new species. Using the acoustic properties of underwater soundscapes can also characterize an ecosystem’s type and condition.

“Says lead author Miles Parsons of the Australian Institute of Marine Science: ‘The world’s most extensive habitats are aquatic and they’re rich with sounds produced by a diversity of animals. With biodiversity in decline worldwide and humans relentlessly altering underwater soundscapes, there is a need to document, quantify, and understand the sources of underwater animal sounds before they potentially disappear.’

“The team’s proposed web-based, open-access platform will provide:

• “A reference library of known and unknown biological sound sources (by integrating and expanding existing libraries around the world);
• “A data repository portal for annotated and unannotated audio recordings of single sources and of soundscapes;
• “A training platform for artificial intelligence algorithms for signal detection and classification;
• “An interface for developing species distribution maps, based on sound; and
• “A citizen science-based application so people who love the ocean can participate in this project

“The wide range of uses for PAM [passive acoustic monitoring] is expanding in step with advances in technology, providing a large volume of easily-accessible data. …

“Many fish and aquatic invertebrate species are predominantly nocturnal or hard to find, the paper notes, making visual observations difficult or impossible. As a result, ‘PAM is proving to be one of the most effective ways to monitor visually elusive but vocal species in aquatic environments, which can potentially aid in more effective conservation management,’ including zoning in marine park areas or fishery closures, the paper says.

“Besides making sounds for communication, many aquatic species produce ‘passive sounds’ while eating, swimming, and crawling — often less acoustically complex or distinct than active sounds but important contributions to an ecosystem’s tell-tale soundscape.

“ ‘Collectively there are now many millions of recording hours around the world that could potentially be assessed for a plethora of both known and, to date, unidentified biological sounds. …

“ ‘This developing library is a key way to catalog, monitor and track changes in biodiversity on reefs and other ocean habitats before they are gone but also help us define “what a healthy reef is” as we seek to rebuild reefs.’ …

“ ‘A database of unidentified sounds is, in some ways, as important as one for known sources,’ the scientists say. ‘As the field progresses, new unidentified sounds will be collected, and more unidentified sounds can be matched to species. …

“ ‘A global database could serve broader questions, like determining universal trends in underwater sound production, while individual, specialized repositories could continue to inform and detail other topics, such as documenting the presence of soniferous species in a particular region.’

“[Listening] to the sea has revealed great whales swimming in unexpected places, new species and new sounds.” Learn about what listening is doing for other species here. No firewall.