Soundscape

A soundscape is the total acoustic field at a place, the sum of biological (biophony), geophysical (geophony), and human (anthrophony) sound. In the sea, biophony includes whale song, fish chorus, and snapping shrimp; geophony includes wind, rain, breaking waves, and ice; anthrophony includes shipping, sonar, seismic airguns, and pile driving. Distant shipping dominates the 20 to 200 Hz band and has raised low-frequency levels in busy basins by roughly 3 dB per decade. Calibrated long-term hydrophone records, reported per ISO 18405 and ISO 17208, quantify soundscapes and underpin regulation of underwater noise.