Course description

Students will gain hands-on experience in bioacoustic research, including; concepts behind animals’ sound production and
hearing mechanisms, skills for deploying acoustic sensors, and data analysis. Lectures cover concepts in acoustics,
soundscapes, and digital sound signal processing. Students will deploy acoustic sensors and conduct field experiments,
then analyze collected data in computer-lab sessions. Focus is on “Passive Acoustic Monitoring,” the non-invasive
recording of sounds in an environment (soundscapes) with microphones (land) or hydrophones (underwater). Terrestrial
field work targets seabirds, while opportunistic recordings may be made of other vocalizing animals, including mammals,
fishes, and invertebrates. Students will study the contributions of anthropogenic sounds (human-made) to natural
soundscapes. Field -based acoustic playback experiments will be conducted to study how different properties of gull
vocalizations influence gull behavior.

Outcome 1: Deploy and recover passive acoustic sensors (microphones, hydrophones) in terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

Outcome 2: Analyze and visualize bioacoustic data (soundscapes, animal vocalizations) using software commonly used by bioacoustics researchers.

Outcome 3: Conduct acoustic playback experiments in the field and measure animal (e.g., herring gull) behavioral responses to sound.

Outcome 4: Explain how animals across multiple taxa (e.g., mammals, birds, fishes) hear and produce sounds, and appreciate the diverse roles that sounds play in ecology.

Outcome 5: Apply fundamental physical acoustic, biological, and ecological concepts to interpret bioacoustic data and results.

Students will live at Shoals Marine Lab (Appledore Island, Gulf of Maine) during this course.

Prerequisites

One semester of college level biology or by instructor's permission. Bioacoustics is interdisciplinary by nature, and bioacousticians often apply fundamental physical and mathematical concepts to answer fascinating biological questions involving acoustics. Introductory Biology, Physics, and Calculus I will be helpful, but these are not required (foundational concepts will be covered at the onset of this intro level class).

Summer 2025: