Soundscapes, originated by natural and anthropogenic sounds are recognized as important drivers of several ecological processes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Sounds are fundamentally semiotic agencies used by several animals to accomplish functions like intra- and interspecies communication, social cohesion, food search optimization, habitat selection, environmental orientation, and migration. Sounds also are important sentinels of the effects of climatic change and efficient proxies in environmental assessment procedures. Integrity and quality of the soundscapes in wild and remote ecosystems, and in human-impacted areas, represent values to be preserved and improved for the well-being of animals and humans.

Ecoacoustics is a novel discipline that has achieved great popularity in the last decades because it is characterized by a non invasive approach to surveying and monitoring natural and human-modified ecosystems. Nevertheless, this discipline still requires continuous theoretical and methodological refreshment. Furthermore, large parts of the Earth have been little investigated from an acoustic point of view, in particular marine off-shore systems and tropical biomes.

A larger utilization of the ecoacoustics could be extremely beneficial to improve nature conservation actions.

The goal of this second edition of this Research Topic is to create a more solid ecoacoustics narrative and to develop new ideas, enhancing the collection of acoustic data at a global scale. In particular, we aim to improve the state-of-the-art of ecoacoustics expanding theoretical and applied approaches by focusing on:

• New developments in ecoacoustics epistemology
• Land use changes and soundscape modification verified from key studies in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecoacoustics in different eco-regions of the Earth
• Ecoacoustics application to biodiversity inventory and nature conservation
• Ecoacoustics methods and technologies to monitor the effects of climate change and anthropogenic modification in habitats and landscapes
• Ecoacoustics contribution to investigate the ecological complexity.
• Development of innovative ecoacoustics metrics, hardware, and software including Artificial Intelligence and Citizen Science

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Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

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