Monitoring and analysis of the acoustic landscape (Soundscape) in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve
The landscape that surrounds us is formed not only by what we see but also by what we hear.
Like the physical space we inhabit, the acoustic landscape can experience disturbances caused by our activities.
These disturbances can affect animals, given that many groups of animals use sound to communicate with one another.
Species that vocalize produce sounds that are unique to each species.
Like the physical landscape, the acoustic landscape, or soundscape, is made up of three components:
geophony, biophony, and anthrophony.
We evaluated the impact produced by activities associated with an exploratory gas drilling platform in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in southeastern Peru
by comparing soundscapes at the same time. This is one of the first landscape-level acoustic analyses carried out in Peru.
We installed 12 automatic recorders at different distances from the platform
that recorded sounds in the forest over 14 days.
Each recorder is programmed to record for 1 minute every 10 minutes,
and recorders are placed in trees at a height of just over 1.5 meters.
We use the program ARBIMON
to listen to the recordings and to view the spectograms that we can use to identify the species recorded at each site.
We also use it to analyze the soundscapes.
By putting together all the 1-minute recordings collected at each site, which in our case was more than 1,600 recordings,
we obtain a single figure that shows the sound activity for each frequency and hour of the day.
The color scale indicates the intensity of sound activity.
RESULTS
We found that most animals vocalize between 2 and 8 kHz
and are more acoustically active between 6:00 at night and 6:00 in the morning.
As for anthrophony, the noises produced by activities in the platform are between 0 and 2 kHz.
Although the soundscape of each site is unique,
when comparing them, we find that sites closest to the platform, up to 250 meters,
are more similar to each other
due to the greater amount of anthropogenic noise recorded
At more distant sites, especially 1000 meters away,
we did not find this pattern
and we also found greater acoustic activity above 2 kHz,
which corresponds to biophony, between 6:00 at night and 6:00 in the morning.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INDUSTRY AND PREVENTION OF FUTURE IMPACTS
SELECT LOCATION: We recommend installing all machinery
in a place where the noise produced is attenuated and does not extend to the forest.
SCHEDULE: Most of the species that vocalize are more active between 6 at night and 6 in the morning.
For this reason, we recommend avoiding or minimizing human activities that produce noise during these hours.
INSULATION - Finally, we recommend that all noise-producing machinery be acoustically insulated to minimize noise,
particularly machinery that must run all day and is found on the edge of the camp,
and especially those such as water pumps and generators located inside the forest.