How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations
Sound is vital for communication and navigation across the animal kingdom and sound communication is unrivaled in accuracy and information richness over long distances both in air and water. The source level (SL) of the sound is a key factor in determining the range at which animals can communicate...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:1a56655be3834f908806a5fb1176792f 2023-05-15T18:26:53+02:00 How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations Lasse Jakobsen Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard Peter Møller Juhl Coen P. H. Elemans 2021-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.657254 https://doaj.org/article/1a56655be3834f908806a5fb1176792f EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.657254/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-701X 2296-701X doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.657254 https://doaj.org/article/1a56655be3834f908806a5fb1176792f Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Vol 9 (2021) bioacoustics source level sound propagation sound production vocal communication Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.657254 2022-12-31T10:25:37Z Sound is vital for communication and navigation across the animal kingdom and sound communication is unrivaled in accuracy and information richness over long distances both in air and water. The source level (SL) of the sound is a key factor in determining the range at which animals can communicate and the range at which echolocators can operate their biosonar. Here we compile, standardize and compare measurements of the loudest animals both in air and water. In air we find a remarkable similarity in the highest SLs produced across the different taxa. Within all taxa we find species that produce sound above 100 dBpeak re 20 μPa at 1 m, and a few bird and mammal species have SLs as high as 125 dBpeak re 20 μPa at 1 m. We next used pulsating sphere and piston models to estimate the maximum sound pressures generated in the radiated sound field. These data suggest that the loudest species within all taxa converge upon maximum pressures of 140–150 dBpeak re 20 μPa in air. In water, the toothed whales produce by far the loudest SLs up to 240 dBpeak re 1 μPa at 1 m. We discuss possible physical limitations to the production, radiation and propagation of high sound pressures. Furthermore, we discuss physiological limitations to the wide variety of sound generating mechanisms that have evolved in air and water of which many are still not well-understood or even unknown. We propose that in air, non-linear sound propagation forms a limit to producing louder sounds. While non-linear sound propagation may play a role in water as well, both sperm whale and pistol shrimp reach another physical limit of sound production, the cavitation limit in water. Taken together, our data suggests that both in air and water, animals evolved that produce sound so loud that they are pushing against physical rather than physiological limits of sound production, radiation and propagation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sperm whale toothed whales Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
bioacoustics source level sound propagation sound production vocal communication Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
bioacoustics source level sound propagation sound production vocal communication Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 Lasse Jakobsen Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard Peter Møller Juhl Coen P. H. Elemans How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations |
topic_facet |
bioacoustics source level sound propagation sound production vocal communication Evolution QH359-425 Ecology QH540-549.5 |
description |
Sound is vital for communication and navigation across the animal kingdom and sound communication is unrivaled in accuracy and information richness over long distances both in air and water. The source level (SL) of the sound is a key factor in determining the range at which animals can communicate and the range at which echolocators can operate their biosonar. Here we compile, standardize and compare measurements of the loudest animals both in air and water. In air we find a remarkable similarity in the highest SLs produced across the different taxa. Within all taxa we find species that produce sound above 100 dBpeak re 20 μPa at 1 m, and a few bird and mammal species have SLs as high as 125 dBpeak re 20 μPa at 1 m. We next used pulsating sphere and piston models to estimate the maximum sound pressures generated in the radiated sound field. These data suggest that the loudest species within all taxa converge upon maximum pressures of 140–150 dBpeak re 20 μPa in air. In water, the toothed whales produce by far the loudest SLs up to 240 dBpeak re 1 μPa at 1 m. We discuss possible physical limitations to the production, radiation and propagation of high sound pressures. Furthermore, we discuss physiological limitations to the wide variety of sound generating mechanisms that have evolved in air and water of which many are still not well-understood or even unknown. We propose that in air, non-linear sound propagation forms a limit to producing louder sounds. While non-linear sound propagation may play a role in water as well, both sperm whale and pistol shrimp reach another physical limit of sound production, the cavitation limit in water. Taken together, our data suggests that both in air and water, animals evolved that produce sound so loud that they are pushing against physical rather than physiological limits of sound production, radiation and propagation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lasse Jakobsen Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard Peter Møller Juhl Coen P. H. Elemans |
author_facet |
Lasse Jakobsen Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard Peter Møller Juhl Coen P. H. Elemans |
author_sort |
Lasse Jakobsen |
title |
How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations |
title_short |
How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations |
title_full |
How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations |
title_fullStr |
How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations |
title_full_unstemmed |
How Loud Can you go? Physical and Physiological Constraints to Producing High Sound Pressures in Animal Vocalizations |
title_sort |
how loud can you go? physical and physiological constraints to producing high sound pressures in animal vocalizations |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.657254 https://doaj.org/article/1a56655be3834f908806a5fb1176792f |
genre |
Sperm whale toothed whales |
genre_facet |
Sperm whale toothed whales |
op_source |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Vol 9 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2021.657254/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-701X 2296-701X doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.657254 https://doaj.org/article/1a56655be3834f908806a5fb1176792f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.657254 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
9 |
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1766208860908945408 |