Search Results (447)

Urban wetlands are acoustic hotspots where vegetation structure, hydrological dynamics, and anthropogenic noise interact, yet multi-season assessments of how vegetation influences avian soundscapes are limited. This study explored bird soundscape dynamics across forest, open forest grassland, and meadow habitats in Nanjing Xinjizhou National Wetland Park, eastern China, using passive acoustic monitoring during spring and autumn 2023. Twelve sampling points (four per vegetation type) were established, and six acoustic indices were calculated, including the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Evenness Index (AEI), Bioacoustic Index (BIO), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NDSI), and Acoustic Entropy Index (H). were calculated from 48-h recordings each season. Random forest models and redundancy analysis assessed the relationships between acoustic indices, fine-scale vegetation parameters (e.g., crown width, tree height, species richness), and anthropogenic factors (e.g., distance to roads/trails, surface hardness). Vegetation structure, particularly crown width, was the primary driver of avian acoustic diversity, with broad-crowned forests consistently exhibiting the highest acoustic complexity. In spring, anthropogenic factors such as trail and road proximity dominated soundscape variation, suppressing biological sounds. In autumn, with reduced human presence, vegetation structure emerged as the dominant factor, while bioacoustic activity remained elevated despite reduced peaks in acoustic complexity. Proximity to roads increased low-frequency (1–2 kHz) noise and suppressed mid-frequency (4–8 kHz) bird vocalizations, but trees with crown widths ≥4 m maintained higher acoustic diversity even near disturbance sources. This study demonstrates that vegetation structure mediates both resource availability and sound propagation, buffering the effects of anthropogenic disturbance in frequency-specific ways. Multi-season sampling is crucial for understanding the dynamic interplay between vegetation phenology and human activity that shapes urban wetland soundscapes. Full article

This article presents a literature review aimed at outlining the state of the art in the assessment of underwater noise and in the evaluation of its effects on fish behavior and health. We examine current methodologies for characterizing the underwater soundscape, emphasizing the importance of incorporating particle motion sensors alongside pressure sensors due to the nature of fish auditory systems. Guidelines for simulating underwater acoustic environments in laboratory settings are also summarized. To characterize anthropogenic noise sources, we consider ship propellers as the primary source of continuous underwater noise, whereas we consider the equipment used in marine seismic surveys as the primary source of impulsive underwater noise. Finally, we summarize documented effects of acoustic pollution on a commercially important species, European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), and describe experimental setups suitable for observing these effects. Full article

Sound plays a fundamental role in human perception, conveying information about events, objects, and spatial dynamics that may not be visually accessible. However, current technologies such as Acoustic Event Detection typically reduce complex soundscapes to textual labels, often failing to preserve their semantic richness. This limitation motivates the exploration of sound-to-image (S2I) translation as an alternative connection between audio and visual modalities. Unlike multimodal approaches guided by intermediary constraints during the learning process, we investigate S2I translation without class supervision, cluster-based alignment, or textual mediation, a paradigm we refer to as direct S2I translation. To the best of our knowledge, apart from our previous work, no prior study addresses S2I translation under this fully direct setting. We propose a convolutional–attention generative framework composed of an audio encoder and a densely connected GAN integrating self-attention and cross-attention mechanisms. The attention-based model is systematically compared with a purely convolutional baseline. Results show that introducing attention at early stages of the generator significantly improves translation performance, increasing the likelihood of producing interpretable and semantically coherent visual representations of sound. These findings indicate that attention strengthens semantic correspondence between audio and vision while preserving the fully direct nature of the translation process. Full article

Underwater radiated noise from small recreational vessels can have significant ecological impacts on near-shore habitats, yet it is often overlooked in soundscape assessments. The objective of this study is to present measured source levels for small recreational vessels and to evaluate an existing source level model (JOMOPANS-ECHO model). The existing model was developed based on data from larger vessels, and the current study focuses on how to modify it for smaller vessels with different hull types. Errors associated with shallow water measurements are also discussed; more specifically, existing methods for accounting for propagation loss are evaluated. Controlled measurements were conducted at five coastal sites for 25 vessels spanning different hull forms, propulsion systems, and operational speeds. Frequency-dependent source level spectra were derived and categorised by hull class (planing, semi-displacement, displacement). The results show clear speed-dependent increases in source level for planing and semi-displacement vessels at higher frequencies (>250 Hz), whereas data for displacement vessels were insufficient to establish statistical trends. The JOMOPANS-ECHO model consistently overestimates the speed dependence. The parameterisations developed here provide class- and speed-specific models suitable for integration into soundscape mapping and cumulative impact assessments. Full article

Small urban parks act as local acoustic refuges, yet their nocturnal soundscapes are rarely quantified at fine spatial scales. We assessed within-park spatio-temporal heterogeneity in Langiewicz Park (~1.1 ha), Wrocław, Poland, using a network of five autonomous AudioMoth recorders mounted on lighting poles at 3.5 m height during early spring campaigns (March–April 2025). Continuous nocturnal recordings (18:00–06:00) were collected, and for each recording, we computed a suite of ecoacoustic indicators capturing acoustic energy (RMS), biophony–anthrophony balance (NDSI), temporal complexity (ACI), spectral diversity (ADI), biotic activity (BI), and acoustic Entropy (H). Indicator time series were aggregated to 15 min resolution to characterise nocturnal trajectories, and dominant patterns were quantified using polynomial trend models and principal component analysis. Despite the small park area and inter-sensor spacing of 50–70 m, indicator distributions differed significantly among microphone locations, with particularly strong spatial contrasts observed in NDSI and BI. Seasonal shifts between March and April further modified the multivariate soundscape structure and the positioning of monitoring sites. These results demonstrate fine-scale nocturnal heterogeneity within a single compact urban park. Our findings suggest that multipoint monitoring design is essential to capture the complex micro-soundscape structures in urban green spaces that single-sensor approaches typically overlook. Full article

The ISO 12913 series represents a paradigm shift in environmental acoustics by introducing a human-centered and perceptual framework for soundscape assessment. Although conceived as globally applicable, questions remain regarding its implementation in Global South contexts. This study evaluates how ISO 12913 is perceived, interpreted, and applied in Brazil, with the aim of identifying its strengths, limitations, and contextual adaptation needs in relation to soundscape standardization and sustainability. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining an online survey with Brazilian soundscape researchers and practitioners and a virtual focus group with domain experts. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, while qualitative responses were examined through thematic analysis structured under a Societal Research Impact Assessment framework. The results indicate broad recognition of the conceptual relevance of ISO 12913, especially its interdisciplinary and human-centered approach. However, several challenges were identified, including linguistic and semantic inconsistencies in perceptual attributes, limited guidance for indoor soundscape assessment, conceptual ambiguities, and socioeconomic constraints affecting implementation. Participants highlighted the need for cultural, linguistic, and methodological adaptations to enable meaningful application within heterogeneous and resource-constrained contexts. By foregrounding the Brazilian experience, the study contributes to global debates on soundscape standardization, by demonstrating how international frameworks such as ISO 12913 can be refined through meaningful engagement with Global South contexts. The study supports the development of complementary national guidelines aimed at enhancing contextual adequacy, operational feasibility, and long-term societal impact, thereby fostering more inclusive and socially sustainable soundscape assessment practices. Full article

In soundscape studies, several models of perceived affective quality have been developed for specific indoor spaces to help characterize comfortable and satisfying environments. However, no model has been developed so far for dining spaces and the validity of existing models proposed for other indoor contexts, like residential buildings and offices, in dining spaces settings remains uncertain. Therefore, this sequential mixed-method study was conducted to establish a list of attributes that researchers may use to describe dining space soundscapes, which will help in developing an indoor soundscape model for dining spaces. A total of 505 potential attributes were identified and collected through multiple approaches including a Large Language Model-driven synthesis and a systematic review of literature related to dining space soundscapes. Subsequently, the original attributes were refined using qualitative analysis methods in several steps, resulting in a final set of 129 single-word attributes, clustered into 53 semantically coherent groups. This set of attributes will contribute to identifying the main perceptual dimensions of dining space soundscapes and constructing a principal components model through quantitative analyses, while the proposed methodology integrates an LLM-driven synthesis with iterative qualitative expert refinement and offers a more efficient and scalable alternative to conventional labor-intensive manual descriptor extraction for attribute collection, therefore supporting efficient and scalable attribute compilation. Full article

The characteristics of green spaces might play a role in shaping the Sense of Place. However, few studies have investigated the relations between the design characteristics of green space and the SoP, and even fewer have accounted for the multi-sensory characteristics of green spaces. This study investigates the Sense of Place in an urban green space in Shiraz, in relation to its soundscapes both on site (n = 6) and in the lab (n = 17). Despite the limited equipment and sample size, the results from both methods of on-site and laboratory conditions converge towards the same conclusions: the SoP was perceived as being lower in parts of the parks located at the boundaries, particularly when unpleasant sounds from the surroundings (e.g., construction) could be heard. Moreover, we did not observe strong associations between sound and visual pleasantness. Finally, we found that the SoP was influenced both by memory representations and the immediate sensory experience. This exploratory study calls for further research on the contribution of the sensory experience, particularly sound-related factors to Sense of Place. Full article

The syllable is the most fundamental acoustic unit in bird vocalizations and is highly informative of species-specific behavioral characteristics. However, because syllables vary significantly across different species and environments, existing syllable extraction methods still rely on manual or semi-automatic processing, which constrains deep learning-based research on birdsong syllables. This study proposes SFWA-TweetyNet for automatic syllable annotation and applies it to the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), achieving a validation accuracy of 0.978 and a loss of 0.073. Based on high-quality syllable recognition, this study conducted exploratory cross-regional and cross-seasonal acoustic comparisons at the syllable level to demonstrate a syllable-based analytical framework. Specifically: (1) Acoustic features were extracted from the principal syllables and analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis test to explore potential variations in acoustic characteristics across regions and seasons; (2) A syllable-based frequency-weighted Acoustic Complexity Index (FW-ACI) was proposed to demonstrate how FW-ACI can be applied for acoustic analysis within the proposed framework, with the Kruskal–Wallis test used as an exploratory statistical tool. In addition, this study constructs a high-quality syllable-level dataset of red-winged blackbird vocalizations, providing important foundational data resources for automatic birdsong annotation, cross-domain soundscape analysis, and avian ecological and behavioral research. Full article

Expressway traffic noise poses a critical threat to public health in developed high-density cities, causing chronic environmental stress in adjacent residential areas. While physical noise barriers are commonly used, the potential of audiovisual interactions in mitigating the adverse effects of traffic noise remains under-explored. Using immersive virtual reality (VR), this study examined the efficacy of visual greenery and auditory masking (birdsong) in promoting stress recovery, and tested whether audiovisual perception mediates the environment–restoration link. Following an acute stressor, 100 participants were randomly assigned to a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment manipulating Green View Index (high vs. low) and soundscape composition (traffic noise vs. traffic noise plus birdsong), with 25 participants in each group. Restorative outcomes were assessed using self-reported measures and continuous physiological monitoring (heart rate variability [HRV] and electrodermal activity [EDA]). Results demonstrated that high-intensity visual greenery and natural sounds effectively enhance psychological restoration in noise-affected environments. Structural equation modeling revealed that audiovisual perception fully mediated the relationship between environmental features and restorative outcomes. The physiological outcome showed a distinct tiered restoration pattern, indicating that immediate psychological buffering can be achieved through natural sounds, while consistent visual reinforcement remained essential for deep physiological recovery. Consequently, soundscape planning in expressway-adjacent zones should integrate visual greening strategies to optimize the perceptual masking of traffic noise and enhance the environmental quality. Full article

This pilot EEG study examined the feasibility of a soundscape-based 40 Hz auditory stimulation format by using a soundscape-only condition as a contrast control. We tested whether a nature-based soundscape with an additively layered pure 40 Hz sine component (40 Hz ON; not amplitude-modulated) yields a more pronounced narrowband response centered at 40 Hz than the same soundscape without the 40 Hz layer (40 Hz OFF). Participants completed both conditions in a single-blind, randomized-order, within-participant crossover session with a washout interval. EEG outcomes included 40 Hz power, frequency-domain SNR around 40 Hz, scalp distribution of 40 Hz power, and phase-based connectivity in the gamma range. This study evaluates EEG-level detectability of 40 Hz–centered neural signatures and does not assess cognitive/clinical efficacy or therapeutic benefit. Across metrics, the 40 Hz ON soundscape showed a consistent ON > OFF directionality, including localized electrode-level signals and a temporal-region summary measure under nominal, uncorrected testing, accompanied by a clearer narrowband feature near 40 Hz in spectral profiles. Overall, the observed trends are consistent with the feasibility of embedding an additive 40 Hz layer into a naturalistic soundscape in a manner that yields EEG-quantifiable, 40 Hz centered signatures; however, because this is an exploratory pilot without multiplicity control, all effects should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating and warrant confirmation in larger, preregistered studies with multiplicity-aware inference. Full article

Background/Objectives: 40 Hz sensory stimulation is being explored for cognitive health applications, but sustained use may be constrained by the listenability of simple 40 Hz auditory stimuli. We examined user-perceived acceptability and implementation considerations for 40 Hz auditory stimulation delivered by embedding a pure 40 Hz sine wave within nature-based soundscapes. Methods: Eleven adults aged ≥ 40 years in Seoul, Republic of Korea were assigned to waves or forest soundscapes (between-participants) and completed a within-session exposure to two conditions within the assigned set: 40 Hz–OFF (soundscape-only) and 40 Hz–ON (soundscape plus an additively layered 40 Hz sine wave). Each condition comprised seven cycles of 50 s playback and 10 s silence (~7 min) with a 10 min washout. After completing both listening blocks, participants provided brief comparative session-end ratings to aid recall and then completed a semi-structured interview focused on detectability and comparative impressions while blinded to condition identity. Following debriefing about the 40 Hz manipulation, participants completed a session-end 7-point Likert appraisal of the intended intervention stimulus (40 Hz–ON). Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis and interpreted using the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability and Proctor et al.’s implementation outcomes as sensitizing frameworks. Results: Session-end appraisals suggested that the 40 Hz-integrated soundscape (40 Hz–ON) was generally listenable, with mid-to-high comfort and immersion (medians = 5) and low unpleasantness (median = 2), while perceived artificiality spanned the full scale (range 1–7) and overall preference was moderate (median = 4). Interviews indicated that acceptability was governed by perceptual integration: natural blending supported “backgroundable” listening, whereas salient low-frequency rumble or a mechanical/artificial timbre contributed to negative reactions. Implementation-relevant themes highlighted context fit (bedtime vs. morning routines), low-friction automation (timers/scheduling), and conservative acoustic safeguards (gentle onset and default levels). Conclusions: In a single-session evaluation among adults aged ≥ 40 years, embedding a 40 Hz sine wave within nature-based soundscapes was generally acceptable, with acceptability sensitive to perceptual integration and usage context. This qualitative study does not assess clinical or cognitive efficacy. These findings inform implementation considerations for cognitive health-oriented delivery, including space-oriented playback options, simplified automation, conservative acoustic safeguards, and coherence-supportive user guidance without overclaiming. Full article

This article rereads Odysseus’s encounter with the Sirens in the Odyssey through the lens of sound, arguing that the episode stages a foundational tension between knowledge and alterity in Western thought. Drawing on Emmanuel Levinas’s notion of the “temptation of temptation,” the essay shows how Odysseus’s famous stratagem—hearing the Sirens while bound to the mast—models a form of mediated proximity that allows sound to be collected without ethical exposure. Close readings of Homeric Greek, especially the Sirens’ claim to knowledge of ὅσσα γένηται, reveal that their song gestures not merely toward retrospective epic knowledge but toward natality and coming-into-being, a dimension Homer pointedly withholds. By placing the Sirens alongside early colonial soundscapes and modern reflections on cartography, the article argues that Western listening practices privilege mastery over vulnerability. Against this tradition, the Sirens’ unheard song marks a suppressed alternative: listening as openness, risk, and ethical relation. Full article

This research explores how Chinese youth, most of whom lack formal religious beliefs or affiliations, engage with digital non-traditional religious music, such as electronic adaptations of the Great Compassion Mantra chant, on platforms such as Bilibili. A total of 15 interviews and one year of digital ethnography were conducted to examine how various music mediators, such as music, technology, the environment, and the cultural context, shape youth’s affective states, namely their states of tranquility, trance, and transcendence. This study reinserts musicality into the social and cultural studies of religious music and identifies more fluid, contingent, and processual forms of associations and articulations between different mediators, along with the more emergent and ambient affective states brought about by such mediators, their networks, and related mediation processes. In addition, this study reveals Chinese youth’s hybridized and idiosyncratic practices that combine alternative spiritual elements with secular experiences, highlighting the context-specific ways in which Chinese youth navigate spirituality in the post-secular age. Full article

Trentino, a sparsely populated and almost entirely mountainous region in northeastern Italy, has so far received little attention in linguistic studies on soundscapes, which provide an important cultural ecosystem service. This study analyzes the responses of 68 participants—31 from mountain areas and 37 from urban areas—to an open-ended questionnaire adapted from Guastavino, using a mixed-methods approach to investigate: (1) differences in current and ideal soundscape perception between residents of urban and mountain areas in Trentino; (2) how these findings compare with Guastavino’s study conducted in a purely urban context; (3) the role of Trentino’s multilingual context in shaping the description and understanding of the soundscape. Findings reveal that, in addition to a latent substratum of the dialectal component, differences emerge mainly in the description of ideal soundscapes. Urban participants evaluate human sounds more negatively and use metonymic expressions for mechanical noises. Mountain participants align their ideal soundscape more closely with their lived experience, often identifying the sound source rather than the sound itself. Tranquility and silence are central values across both groups for the ideal soundscape and for the current one, cognitively linked to natural environments, which therefore remains a cultural legacy to be preserved. Full article