Each morning, the great conservationist Aldo Leopold took meticulous notes of the dawn bird chorus outside his Wisconsin home. Now, a professor and a grad student at the University of Wisconsin have used Leopold’s journals to recreate the soundscape that Leopold heard in 1940.
According to scientists specializing in bio-acoustics, ecosystems have evolved a rich and complex sound quality. But noise pollution from cars, ships, and electronic devices is destroying these subtle, acoustic patterns in habitats around the globe. Reporter Nathan Johnson looks into the causes and consequences of the destruction of these natural soundscapes