bioakustik

Bioakustik, or bioacoustics, is the interdisciplinary study of how living organisms produce, transmit, receive, and respond to sound. It encompasses acoustic communication within and between species, echolocation and navigation, and the ecological and evolutionary contexts in which sounds arise. The field also investigates how environmental conditions, such as habitat structure and noise, influence signal production, transmission, and perception.

Researchers collect data from field and laboratory experiments, using tools such as microphones, hydrophones, and bat detectors. Signals are analyzed with waveform and spectrographic representations (spectrograms), and interpreted with statistical, bioacoustic, and computational methods. Technologies include passive acoustic monitoring, acoustic tagging, and increasingly automated sound classification and machine learning.

Applications of bioakustik include wildlife monitoring and conservation, biodiversity assessment, and studies of animal behavior, mating systems, and social structure. In marine, freshwater, and terrestrial systems, acoustic signals reveal activity patterns, habitat use, and responses to environmental change. Bioacoustics also finds use in noise impact assessments and in the development of tools for wildlife management and ecological research.

Notable study areas include researchers examining bird songs, bat echolocation, whale and dolphin communications, and insect stridulation. The field integrates physiology, psychoacoustics, ecology, and computer science, and has benefited from advances in digital recording, spectral analysis, and machine learning. Ongoing challenges include discriminating biological signals from anthropogenic noise, standardizing methodologies, and ensuring ethical considerations in field work.