Marine soundscapes

CMST has been recording the Australian marine soundscape since 1998 and manages the underwater acoustic observatories of Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS). The Centre monitors ambient ocean noise; acoustically tracks vocalising animals such as whales; measures and predicts underwater noise produced from industrial operations such as seismic surveys, pile driving and shipping; and provides state-of-the-art modelling of sound propagation. Research in acoustic ecology includes communication and hearing in marine animals, and the impacts of underwater noise on marine animals. The Centre has the only Australian program in hearing models of marine megafauna.

CMST’s research assets include:

  • Multi-terabyte database documenting seasonal, geographic and temporal variability of Australian marine soundscapes
  • Autonomous underwater acoustic recorders designed and built at CMST
  • Two commercial seismic airguns for controlled exposure studies
  • Publicly available software for modelling sound emission & propagation, and for automated analysis of acoustic data
  • CMST manages the Passive Acoustic Observatories of Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System
  • Mobile auditory brainstem response system for measuring hearing in marine animals

Recent projects:

Underwater soundscape recorded in the Perth Canyon

Underwater soundscape recorded in the Perth Canyon

CMST noise logger deployed on the seafloor
CMST ute loaded with underwater noise loggers and mooring

References Selected publications

Erbe C, Verma A, McCauley R, Gavrilov A, Parnum I (2015) The marine soundscape of the Perth Canyon. Prog Oceanogr 137:38-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2015.05.015

Marley SA, Erbe C, Salgado Kent CP (2016) Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability. Acoust Aust 44 (1):171-186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40857-015-0038-z

Marley SA, Erbe C, Salgado Kent CP, Parsons MJG, Parnum IM (2017) Spatial and temporal variation in the acoustic habitat of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) within a highly urbanised estuary. Front Mar Sci 4:197. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00197

Marley SA, Salgado Kent CP, Erbe C, Thiele D (2017) A tale of two soundscapes: Comparing the acoustic characteristics of urban versus pristine coastal dolphin habitats in Western Australia. Acoust Aust 45 (2):159-178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40857-017-0106-7

McWilliam JN, McCauley RD, Erbe C, Parsons MJG (2017) Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef. Sci Rep 7 (1):17459. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15838-z

McWilliam JN, McCauley RD, Erbe C, Parsons MJG (2018) Soundscape diversity in the Great Barrier Reef: Lizard Island, a case study. Bioacoustics 27 (3):295-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2017.1344930

Williams R, Erbe C, Dewantama IMI, Hendrawan IG (2018) Effect on ocean noise: Nyepi, a Balinese day of silence. Oceanography 31 (2):16-18. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2018.207

Parsons MJG, Lin T-H, Mooney TA, Erbe C, Juanes F, Lammers M, Li S, Linke S, Looby A, Nedelec SL, Van Opzeeland I, Radford C, Rice AN, Sayigh L, Stanley J, Urban E, Di Iorio L (2022) Sounding the call for a global library of underwater biological sounds. Front Ecol Evol 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.810156

Schoeman RP, Erbe C, Plön S (2022) Underwater chatter for the win: A first assessment of underwater soundscapes in two bays along the Eastern Cape Coast of South Africa. J Mar Sci Eng 10 (6):746. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10060746

Looby A, Erbe C, Bravo S, Cox K, Davies HL, Di Iorio L, Jézéquel Y, Juanes F, Martin CW, Mooney TA, Radford C, Reynolds LK, Rice AN, Riera A, Rountree R, Spriel B, Stanley J, Vela S, Parsons MJG (2023) Global inventory of species categorized by known underwater sonifery. Scientific Data 10 (1):892. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02745-4

Azofeifa-Solano JC, Erbe C, Tollefsen C, McCauley RD, Brooker RM, Pygas D, Parsons MJG (2025) Distance and orientation of hydrophones influence the received soundscape in shallow coral reefs. Frontiers in Remote Sensing 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2025.1527988

Azofeifa-Solano JC, Parsons MJG, Brooker R, McCauley R, Pygas D, Feeney W, Simpson S, Nedelec SL, Croxford EM, Meekan M, Erbe C (2025) Soundscape analysis reveals fine ecological differences among coral reef habitats. Ecol Indic 171:113120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113120

Azofeifa-Solano JC, Parsons MJG, Kemp J, Brooker RM, McCauley RD, Madhusudhana S, Wyatt M, Simpson SD, Erbe C (2025) Impact of parameterization in multiple acoustic index comparisons: practical cases in terrestrial and underwater soundscapes. Remote Sens Ecol Conserv:2.70044. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.70044

Kemp J, Azofeifa-Solano JC, Barneche DR, Brooker R, Arévalo JE, Erbe C, Parsons M (2025) Impact of acoustic index parameters on soundscape comparisons. Methods Ecol Evol 16 (5):872-885. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.70007