Title: Bioacoustics and Ecoacoustics for ecosystem monitoring and conservation

Provider: University of Pavia, Prof. Gianni Pavan

Date: 18th – 19th January 2023, from 2PM to 6PM (14.00-15.45, 16.00-18.00)

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PROGRAM

To be confirmed

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Description of the course:

The course introduces the students to the discipline of Ecoacoustics that joins Bioacoustics and Ecology to study the soundscape of ecosystems. Biological sounds (Biophony), physical sounds (Geophony) and anthropogenic sounds (Anthropophony and Technophony) compose the soundscape and are considered together to provide either short term and long term information on the quality of the ecosystems. The course presents a short history of bioacoustics and ecoacoustics and an overview of existing technologies for data acquisition and interpretation.

Bioacoustics and Ecoacoustics are emerging disciplines in biodiversity science and biodiversity conservation: from the recognition and monitoring of individual species to the soundscape analysis and description, they provide new insights and approaches for science, nature conservation, and education.

Ecoacoustics is a recently defined interdisciplinary science, derived from bioacoustics and ecology that investigates natural and anthropogenic sounds and their relationship with the environment over a wide range of study scales, both spatial and temporal, at individual, community and population level. Ecoacoustis studies the soundscape, that is composed by all the sounds expressed by the physical and biological components of an ecosystem, including the human beings and their invasive actions.

Learning outcomes:

1. Basic understanding of Bioacoustics, Ecoacoustics, and Computational Bioacoustics/Ecoacoustics
2. Knowledge of methods and instruments for the acoustic monitoring of ecosystems
3. Knowledge of real cases where ecoacoustic studies provide useful information for ecosystem management

How: in streaming on line, Zoom link available here

Credits: 1CFU (8 hours)

Time period: First Semester

Any prerequisites: basic knowledge of acoustics and ethology

Learning resources: slides of the lectures, integrated with papers, videos and sounds available on an online repository.

Type of assessment: Multiple-choice questionnaire.

Quality assurance: University of Pavia.