Newswise — National parks are prized for their visual splendor, but the sounds of nature are also part of that rich experience. Researchers and protected area managers from Colorado State University (CSU), the National Park Service (NPS), and the Vermont-based consulting company Resource Systems Group are working together to help ensure that the sounds in U.S. national parks remain as natural as possible, for the benefit of both visitors and native wildlife.
The team’s work – which includes a review of several studies conducted at four U.S. national parks – shows that even good decisions can have unintended consequences on soundscapes, says CSU’s Peter Newman, who will discuss the group’s results at the Acoustics 2012 meeting in Hong Kong, May 13-18, a joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Acoustical Society of China, Western Pacific Acoustics Conference, and the Hong Kong Institute of Acoustics.
A study in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, for example, revealed the aural consequences of reducing traffic congestion on park roads by adding shuttle buses to carry people to and from trailheads. The new shuttles succeeded in making trails accessible to a greater number of visitors. But each bus was also six times louder than a car; and the sounds of chatting hikers, backpack zippers, and gravel-crunching boots became concentrated at bus arrival times instead of being spread more evenly throughout the day. This good decision therefore had a negative effect on soundscape, shrinking the visitors’ “listening area,” or the distance around their heads at which they can still hear natural sounds.
To help park managers understand the tradeoffs between noise and other considerations, Newman and his colleagues build soundscape models that predict how design changes will affect listening experience. These models have already been used at Rocky Mountain National Park, as well as at Yosemite National Park in California.
In addition to providing a more peaceful atmosphere for visitors, soundscape maintenance also benefits wild animals, which require a large listening area to help them search for food and protect their young. “[Animals] want to know, ‘Where’s Bambi?’” Newman says. “‘How far away do I have to be where [my young] can still hear me … or where I can hear that vole crawling beneath the surface of the leaves?’”
Other work for the team includes tracking how visitors feel about noise levels in national parks, as well as recommending potential solutions. Researchers have found, for example, that reminding people to keep the noise down with “quiet zone” signs are effective noise-reduction methods.
“This paper is about lessons learned,” says Newman. “Not only is noise important to people, but if we ask people to quiet down, they will.”
The team’s presentation will include studies from the national parks at Yosemite and Rocky Mountain, as well as Denali National Park in Alaska and Sequoia Kings National Park in California.
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The 163rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) will feature more than 1,300 presentations on the science of sound and its impact on physics, engineering, and medicine. This international acoustics meeting will be held jointly with the 8th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of China and the 11th Western Pacific Acoustics Conference. It is organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Acoustics and will take place May 13-18, 2012, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 163rd ASA MEETING
USEFUL LINKS:Main meeting website: http://acoustics2012hk.org/ Searchable index: http://asa.aip.org/asasearch.html Hotel site: http://acoustics2012hk.org/hotel.php
WORLD WIDE PRESS ROOMASA's World Wide Press Room (www.acoustics.org/press) will contain additional tips on newsworthy stories and lay-language papers, which are 300-1200 word summaries of presentations written by scientists for a general audience and accompanied by photos, audio, and video.
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This news release was prepared for the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) by the American Institute of Physics (AIP).
ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), Acoustics Today magazine, ECHOES newsletter, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about ASA, visit our website at http://www.acousticalsociety.org.
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