Marine soundscape characterization to mitigate ocean noise pollution in Venice lagoon, NE Italy

Human activities are known to have profound and increasing impacts on biodiversity and the environment (Frisk, 2012). An important aspect of our impact on wildlife is noise pollution, both in the form of elastic noise (e.g., commercial activities, oil and gas platforms) and acoustic waves (navigation, seismic surveys). The frequency range of anthropogenic (some types of boats and activities) and biological signals overlap, resulting in disturbance of animal behaviors, such as masking communication.

Venice's environment is particularly fragile and threatened by both climate change and the growing impact of mass tourism. In this regard, the increasing cruise-ship traffic and the growing demand for tourist transportation are among the main causes of water and air pollution. Recent studies have shown how significant water noise can be, associated with daytime (Bolgan et al., 2016) and summer tourism peaks (Tegowski et al., 2019), and how necessary it is to adopt soundscape monitoring strategies (Boaga and Boschi, 2022).

In this context, the SEASOUNDS project aims to improve the characterization of marine soundscapes to provide recommendations for appropriate and proportionate underwater noise mitigation solutions to improve know-how, decision-making, and standard-setting for sustainable impact on marine wildlife. However, important knowledge gaps still exist related to understanding, characterizing, and modeling the entire noise transfer chain from the noise source to receptors (be it a technological tool or an animal).

The objective of this contribution is to show the implementation phases of the project, which consist of a series of underwater acoustic acquisitions in the Venice lagoon area. Both low-cost autonomous underwater recording units and a high-quality hydrophone will be used, providing data within a holistic approach that incorporates concepts, models and tools from seismology and environmental acoustic monitoring.

 

References

Boaga, J., Boschi, L. Impact of Anthropogenic Activities on Underwater Noise Pollution in Venice. Water Air Soil Pollut 233, 221 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05653-2

Bolgan, M., Picciulin, M., Codarin, A., Fiorin, R., Zucchetta, M., & Malavasi, S. (2016). Is the Venice lagoon noisy? First passive listening monitoring of the Venice lagoon: Possible effects on the typical fish community. In A. N. Popper & A. Hawkins (Eds.), The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life II (pp. 83–90). New York: Springer.

Frisk, G. (2012). Noiseonomics: The relationship between ambient noise levels in the sea and global economic trends. Scientific Reports, 2, 437. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00437

Tegowski, J., Madricardo, F., Kruss, A., Zdroik, J., Janowski, L. (2019). Monitorning of anthropogenic underwater noise in the Venice lagoon, Italy, In: UACE2019 - Conference Proceedings, pp. 367–373.