ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Acoustic ecology

Do you like listening to the sounds of birds chirping or waves crashing at the beach? Well, there is a whole field of study called acoustic ecology that is all about listening to and understanding the sounds in our environment.

Think of it like this: just like you have five senses to experience the world around you (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching), there are also different sounds all around us that make up the soundscape of our environment.

Acoustic ecologists listen to these different sounds and study how they interact with each other and with humans and animals. They pay attention to things like how sound travels through air and water, how different sounds can affect our moods and health, and how animals use sound to communicate with each other.

By studying acoustic ecology, scientists, engineers, and other experts can understand the impact of things like noise pollution and climate change on our environment and find ways to improve our acoustic environment for everyone, human and animal alike.