Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on levels of deep-ocean acoustic noise

The extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic led to measures to mitigate the spread of the disease, with lockdowns and mobility restrictions at national and international levels. These measures led to sudden and sometimes dramatic reductions in human activity, including significant reduc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2023-03, Vol.13 (1), p.4631-4631, Article 4631
Main Authors: Robinson, Stephen, Harris, Peter, Cheong, Sei-Him, Wang, Lian, Livina, Valerie, Haralabus, Georgios, Zampolli, Mario, Nielsen, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/829
704/829/2737
704/829/826
Acoustics
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Ecosystem
Geographic Mapping
Human Activities - statistics & numerical data
Humanities and Social Sciences
Islands
Laboratories
Monitoring systems
multidisciplinary
Noise
Noise levels
Noise reduction
Noise, Transportation - statistics & numerical data
Ocean basins
Oceans and Seas
Pandemics
Regression Analysis
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Ships - statistics & numerical data
Soundscapes
Tourism
Trends
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Summary:The extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic led to measures to mitigate the spread of the disease, with lockdowns and mobility restrictions at national and international levels. These measures led to sudden and sometimes dramatic reductions in human activity, including significant reductions in ship traffic in the maritime sector. We report on a reduction of deep-ocean acoustic noise in three ocean basins in 2020, based on data acquired by hydroacoustic stations in the International Monitoring System of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. The noise levels measured in 2020 are compared with predicted levels obtained from modelling data from previous years using Gaussian Process regression. Comparison of the predictions with measured data for 2020 shows reductions of between 1 and 3 dB in the frequency range from 10 to 100 Hz for all but one of the stations.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-31376-3