Soundscape Ecology

This book details the principles and theory of soundscape ecology. It describes the bioacoustic and communication theories, covers the human dimension of soundscape, explores major sonic patterns, and details methods and applications.

Soundscape Ecology represents a new branch of ecology and it is the result of the integration of different disciplines like Landscape ecology, Bioacoustics, Acoustic ecology, Biosemiotics, etc. The soundscape that is the object of this discipline, is defined as the acoustic context resulting from natural and human originated sounds and it is considered a relevant environmental proxy for animal and human life.

With Soundscape Ecology Almo Farina means to offer a new cultural tool to investigate a partially explored component of the environmental complexity. For this he intends to set the principles of this new discipline, to delineate the epistemic domain in which to develop new ideas and theories and to describe the necessary integration with all the other ecological/environmental disciplines.

The book is organized in ten chapters. The first two chapters delineate principles and theory of soundscape ecology. Chapters three and four describe the bioacoustic and communication theories. Chapter five is devoted to the human dimension of soundscape. Chapters six to eight regard the major sonic patterns like noise, choruses and vibrations. Chapter nine is devoted to the methods in soundscape ecology and finally chapter ten describes the application of the soundscape analysis.

First handbook on soundscape ecology for a graduate course in advanced landscape ecology Integration between soundscape and landscape principles Application of the soundscape ecology to nature conservation and human well-being

Inhalt

Preface.- 1. Soundscape & Landscape Ecologies.- 2. The Sonic Characters of the Landscapes.- 3. Bioacoustic Theories.- 4. Communication Theories.- 5. The Human Dimension of the Soundscape: from Individuals to Society.- 6. Sonic Patterns I: The Noise.- ** 7. Sonic Patterns II: The Choruses.- 8. Sonic Patterns III: Sounds and Vibrations from Soils.- 9. Methods.- 10.** Applications.- Index.