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Paper: So Small, So Loud: Extremely High Sound Pressure Level from a Pygmy Aquatic Insect (Corixidae, Micronectinae). Researchers: Jérôme Sueur, David Mackie and James F. C. Windmill

Abstract: To communicate at long range, animals have to produce intense but intelligible signals. This task might be difficult to achieve due to mechanical constraints, in particular relating to body size. Whilst the acoustic behaviour of large marine and terrestrial animals has been thoroughly studied, very little is known about the sound produced by small arthropods living in freshwater habitats. Here we analyse for the first time the calling song produced by the male of a small insect, the water boatman Micronecta scholtzi. The song is made of three distinct parts differing in their temporal and amplitude parameters, but not in their frequency content. Sound is produced at 78.9 (63.6–82.2) SPL rms re 2.10−5 Pa with a peak at 99.2 (85.7–104.6) SPL re 2.10−5 Pa estimated at a distance of one metre. This energy output is significant considering the small size of the insect. When scaled to body length and compared to 227 other acoustic species, the acoustic energy produced by M. scholtzi appears as an extreme value, outperforming marine and terrestrial mammal vocalisations. Such an extreme display may be interpreted as an exaggerated secondary sexual trait resulting from a runaway sexual selection without predation pressure. Click2Read Full Research Article

Paper: Measuring and interpreting the temporal variability in the soundscape at four places in Sequoia National Park. Authors: Bernie Krause, Stuart H. Gage and Wooyeong Joo. Abstract: The soundscape was recorded in four selected places in Sequoia National Park CA, to quantify and assess the diurnal and seasonal character of the park’s soundscape. The recording sites were selected to represent a combination of elevation and vegetation diversity. Hour-long sound recordings were made by four individuals at each place during fall, spring, summer and winter at dawn, midday, dusk, and midnight with identical recording instrumentation. The recordings of the soundscape were made in an old growth forest (Crescent Meadow), in a foothill oak savanna (Sycamore Spring), in an upland savanna chaparral (Shepherd Saddle) and in a foothill riparian location adjacent to the Kiawah River (Buckeye Flat). Sound recordings were analyzed using a normalized Power Spectral Density (PSD) algorithm and partitioned into 1 kHz intervals based on 12 subsamples from each of the 64 h-long sound recordings. Biological signals (biophony) were based on the highest PSD value within the range of 2–8 kHz. A multilevel analysis (MLA) was used to examine temporal patterns of biophony at four locations in Sequoia National Park. Unsupervised Landsat Thematic Mapper Satellite Imagery identified 25 vegetation regimes in Sequoia National Park. Satellite signatures of the habitat where recordings were made were extracted from the imagery to scale to the region. (You may not be able to download the entire document without subscription) (Photo: US National Park Service). Click2Access

Project: Collective Jukebox 4.04. A project devised by Jérôme Joy. "The French composer Jérôme Joy has been concerned with building musical communities and with alternative forms of making music accessible.
    His "Collective Jukebox" project (started in 1996)   involved building a jukebox that could play recordings by experimental musicians from around the world. He then asked people all over the planet to contribute recordings and to let their friends and acquaintances know about his open invitation. He did not curate the recordings; rather, he included everything that was sent to him. He wanted to create a kind of musical "commons," where information from anyone who wanted to participate would be available.
    The jukebox has been installed in a series of art museums around Europe for the past eight years, where its music is available for the public to hear and explore. Jérôme Joy wants to create a place where people who are interested in listening to newer forms of sonic creativity can easily find that work. Joy's work is an example of a composer trying to establish a new basis for musical and artistic community." Source: Warren Burt, "Experimental Music in 2005", in "World Music Today". (Photo: 2000 Collective Jukebox 2.1 Tourcoing, France ) Click2Access

Project: Sonic Bus Tour. A 1959 Routemaster bus was used for a mystery tour to hear a soundtrack of the Poole (England) working landscape on July 24 and 26, 2011. The event was organized to present history live in the 'real' world, so that history merges with the present. The tour allowed passengers to hear people describe places that no longer existed, while traveling through these same landscapes today. Click2Read/Listen.

Project: World Listening Day 2011. Author: radio aporee. This project capture world-wide sound recordings that originated during the July 18th, 2011 World Listening Day. Recordings are matched with map locations allows users to choose sounds and view the landscape via satellite and terrain formats. Click2Access

Blog: Sounding Out. This resource provides the freshest insight and the latest commentary on the emerging field of sound studies and its many cultural manifestations. The blog features interviews with people active in the effort to define and explore the notion of soundscape and tackling questions like:

Blog: I suoni di Cembra. This is the blog of the Cembra Soundscapes research which is part of the project "Soundscapes and Cultural Sustainability - Strategies for Local Action", funded by the Academy of Finland (2009-2012). Click2Read.

Blog: Dollar Soundscapes. This is the blog of the Dollar soundscape research which is also part of the project "Soundscapes and Cultural Sustainability - Strategies for Local Action", funded by the Academy of Finland (2009-2012). Click2Read

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