In a nutshell, sonotope quality refers to the ecological health, complexity, and overall richness of the sounds within a specific geographical area, or sonotope. It’s a way to assess the environmental condition of a location just by listening to the sounds that emanate from it.
Sonotope Quality in Acoustic Ecology
Acoustic ecology is an interdisciplinary field that studies the relationship between living beings and their sonorous environment (Paparrigopoulos, 2024).
The term sonotope is a geographical concept, much like a habitat or landscape, but defined by its acoustic properties. It represents a spatial area with a relatively homogeneous acoustic environment (Farina & James, 2016). Think of a single forest patch, a wetland, or a busy intersection. Each of these spaces is a distinct sonotope.
To understand sonotope quality, we first look at the three main components that make up a site’s Soundscape (Pijanowski et al., 2011), the total collection of sounds:
Assessing Sonotope Quality
Sonotope quality is generally assessed by evaluating the balance, complexity, and purity of a Soundscape’s Biophony, Geophony, and Anthropophony components.
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High Quality: A high-quality sonotope, particularly in natural areas, is typically characterized by rich, complex biophony and low, non-intrusive anthrophony. The acoustic signature is rich in diversity of signals and frequencies, suggesting a healthy and diverse acoustic community (Farina & James, 2016).
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Low Quality (Degraded): A low-quality or degraded sonotope often shows a simplified acoustic profile, frequently dominated by persistent, loud anthrophony (noise) that can mask or mask the biological sounds. This acoustic degradation can negatively affect animal communication and human well-being (Pijanowski et al., 2011).
In essence, assessing sonotope quality helps scientists and conservationists use sound as a non-invasive proxy for ecosystem health and biodiversity.6
📝 References
Farina, A., & James, P. (2016). The acoustic communities: Definition, description and ecological role. Biosystems, 147, 11–20.7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2016.05.011
Paparrigopoulos, K. (2024). Acoustic ecology. Routledge.
Pijanowski, B. C., Villanueva-Rivera, L. J., Dumyahn, S. L., Farina, A., Krause, B. L., Napoletano, B. M., Gage, S. H., & Pieretti, N. (2011).8 Soundscape ecology: The science of sound in the landscape. Landscape Ecology, 26(9), 1213–1232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-011-9600-8