Acoustic monitoring to evaluate the effect of anthropogenic noise within a park

The aim of this paper is to propose the use of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) as a noninvasive method to investigate the state of communities and ecosystems. PAM operates through the study and characterization of the soundscape of an area. One of the three components of the soundscape (beside geophony and biophony) is anthrophony, which is the collection of sounds produced by human activities. This kind of sounds can have effects on natural environments and natural population. In this study, recording instruments and sampling techniques have been used to acquire and collect sound data for long periods (two weeks) in a natural terrestrial ecosystem (Ticino Park) which is affected by road and rail traffic noise. The analysis conducted studied the trends of the eco-acoustic indices belonging to three measurement sites to detect the presence of characteristic trends and to evaluate the influence of the two anthropogenic noise sources at different distances.