Ecomusicology is an emerging field in the scientific world that combines the study of “music and sound, culture and society, and nature and environment” (Allen and Dawe, 2016). This covers a wide variety of interdisciplinary topics that allows us to study dynamic relationships in our ever-changing natural world. Under this broad field is the narrower field of “soundscape ecology”.
Soundscapes are “acoustic reflections of the patterns and processes of the landscape” (Tingley, 2012). We can learn a lot about any landscape simply by listening to and interpreting sounds of a specific time and place. A variety of sounds can give information about the biodiversity of an ecosystem. Human-made sounds give us an indication of noise pollution, which can be interpolated to measure the health of an ecosystem. It can even simply describe the musical aesthetic of a location. No two places have the same soundscape, and preserving natural soundscapes is as important as any other type of conservation.
There is currently no (accessible) information on the soundscape of Carse Wetlands. For this project, I’m going to record and analyze the soundscape of this natural area to supplement our other findings and fill the gap of information in this area of research. I’m hoping that this will give us information about noise pollution and the overall health of the landscape. The final product will include an explanation of soundscapes, audio and/ or video content of the Carse Wetlands soundscape, and an interpretation of how this supports other data of the natural area.