The acoustic footprint of recreation: Analyzing trail impacts on wildlife soundscapes

Parks, preserves, and other greenspaces provide diverse amenities to humans and habitats for wildlife and biodiversity. However, anthropogenic disturbances, including noise, from outdoor recreation can negatively impact biodiversity. Soundscape analyses using passive acoustic monitoring provides a scalable assessment of the drivers and impacts of noise on biodiversity along recreation trails. While there is acoustic data on the effects of roads on wildlife, there is less work on the effects of noise from recreation trails. To address this gap we collected acoustic data and calculated acoustic indices at Conestee Nature Preserve, a peri-urban recreational space, to evaluate the biophony at locations on recreational trails and away from trails. Acoustic index values differed between locations with and without foot traffic indicating an influence of recreation on the wildlife, biodiversity, and the acoustic environment more broadly. These data demonstrate that acoustic monitoring provides actionable insight for recreation managers interested in the biodiversity value and impacts of walking rails. In addition, these data suggest that trail use management should consider mechanisms to protect acoustic environments preferred by wildlife and humans.