Skip to Main Content

Global Soundscapes and COVID-19

David Savage
With stay at home orders in place around the world, many cities have gone quiet, or at least are much quieter than normal. What effect does that have on the global environment and what impact does that have on urban wildlife?

The Center for Global Soundscapes is participating in a collaborative study with researchers from around the globe, to determine the impacts of COVID19 quarantine on urban and peri-urban soundscapes.

“We have all heard—or rather, not heard—planes taking off and landing, and decreases in traffic noise as people shelter in place and minimize their activity outside the home,” graduate research assistant David Savage said. “We are using audio recorders to track the impacts on both people and wildlife and will continue to do so as the quarantine continues and as, hopefully, things return to normal.”An acoustic monitoring device

The project is being led by a group of researchers from several European universities - Avignon University, Tolouse 2 University, IMT Atlantique, and the University of Bristol - but there are currently roughly 70 participants from all over the world, including the United States, Europe, and Latin America primarily.

The group hopes to be able to track the patterns of human activity as industrial and commercial activity has decreased during the quarantine, and then detect changes as activity ramps back up. They also hope to be able to monitor the responses of urban wildlife--or at least, urban wildlife that makes sounds--to reductions in human activity, improvements in air quality, etc.

The broader goal of the project is to develop a global dataset in a systematic way that can be easily Kristen Bellisariointegrated with other data from a variety of sources for a diverse set of researchers to tackle a broad set of questions.

To fulfill their part of the project, Savage and post doctoral research associate Kristen Bellisario placed Wildlife Acoustics Song Meter 4 acoustic sensors in local woodland areas.

Featured Stories

Students walking and bicycling under the Purdue University arch this summer.
College of Agriculture introduces 14 new faculty members

College of Agriculture welcomes 14 new faculty members, kicking off the start of the 2025 fall...

Read More
Jackson Schwartz with extension specialist Jarred Brooke and another student at a prescribed burn.
FNR Field Report: Jackson Schwartz

Jackson Schwartz, who completed his bachelor’s degree in wildlife in May, spent the summer...

Read More
Dr. Ken Kellner at a computer; Kellner teaching; Kellner at Denali National Park.
Dr. Ken Kellner Named Outstanding Young Alumni Award Recipient

Dr. Ken Kellner, who earned his master’s degree (2012) and PhD (2015) from Purdue and...

Read More
Dr. Joe Robb releases ducks with his son Jason; Dr. Joe Robb on a prescribed fire scene; Dr. Joe Robb holds a hognose snake.
Dr. Joe Robb Earns Chase S. Osborn Award in Wildlife Conservation

Dr. Joe Robb, who has spent the last 26 years serving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the...

Read More
Bella Hilaski looks at the forest in Sweden; Bella and a friend stand with a Rauk, or stone pillar; the Visby church.
FNR Field Reports: Bella Hilaski Recaps Week 3 of the Study Abroad Trip to Sweden, Finland

Throughout the 2025 Sustainable Natural Resources study abroad course in Sweden and Finland, FNR...

Read More
Dr. Zackary Delisle holding two frogs as a child; Dr. Zackary Delisle holding a cottonmouth snake during his master's degree research; Dr. Zackary Delisle doing an aerial survey in Alaska in his current role as an ecologist with the National Park Service.
Dr. Zackary Delisle Receives 2024 Chase S. Osborn Early Career Award for Wildlife Conservation

Dr. Zackary Delisle (PhD 2023), whose research in Indiana was instrumental for enacting deer...

Read More
To Top