来源：《新科学家》
原文见刊日期：2022年4月23日
In the rainforest, thousands of species sing and call, forming acoustic layers so rich that the human mind can be overwhelmed. Drop a hydrophone into an ocean and you will hear similar richness.
在热带雨林中，成千上万的物种会唱歌和呼叫，形成丰富的声层，人类的大脑可能会应接不暇。把水听器扔进海里，你会听到类似丰富的声音。
Hundreds of thousands of other vocal wonders ring out across the world. Every vocal species has a distinctive sound. Every place on the globe has a singular acoustic character.
成千上万的其他声音奇迹响彻全世界。每个发声物种都有独特的声音。地球上的每个地方都有一个奇特的声学特征。
This magnificence is of relatively recent origin. Compared with visual and chemical signals, the diversity of sounds flourished late on Earth. 300 million years ago, a few cricket-like insects and the ancestors of some fish started to sing. Sonic diversity has flourished ever since, spurred by the great advantages offered by vocal communication.
这种壮观的景象起源于相对较近的时期。与视觉和化学信号相比，声音的多样性在地球上发展得较晚。3亿年前，一些类似蟋蟀的昆虫和一些鱼类的祖先开始唱歌。从那时起，由于语音交流的巨大优势，声音多样性蓬勃发展。
We live in a world of sonic wonder, yet this richness is being eroded worldwide. In oceans, forests and cities alike, sonic diversity is under assault.
我们生活在一个充满声音奇迹的世界，然而这种丰富性正在全世界范围内被侵蚀。在海洋、森林和城市中，声音多样性都受到了攻击。
In some places, sonic loss is caused by the destruction of habitats, from felled forests to overfished oceans. Elsewhere, noise is the problem. Machines pump so much sound into water and air that other species can’t hear one another.
在一些地方，声音多样性损失是由栖息地的破坏造成的，从砍伐森林到过度捕捞海洋。在其他地方，噪音是个问题。机器向水中和空气中输送了太多的声音，以至于其他物种无法听到彼此的声音。
The problem of noise is most acute in the oceans, where shipping and sonar create a cacophony so dire that it is uninhabitable for many species.
噪音问题在海洋中最为严重，航运和声纳产生的刺耳噪音严重到，对许多物种来说，海洋变得不宜居住。
In habitats such as dense rainforests or turbid oceans, sound is the only way for most animals to communicate. This communication – mating songs, cooperative signals about food, cries that indicate social status and alarm calls – allows complex animal life to thrive.
在茂密的雨林或浑浊的海洋等栖息地，声音是大多数动物交流的唯一方式。这种交流——交配的歌声、关于捕食的合作信号、表明社会地位的叫声和告警声——让复杂的动物生命茁壮成长。
In noisy or silenced ecosystems, the viability of species and communities is threatened. Sound connects animals to their mates, offspring and compatriots, and so noise can degrade the social and ecological networks of vocal species.
在嘈杂或静默的生态系统中，物种和群落的生存能力受到威胁。声音将动物与它们的配偶、后代和同类联系在一起，所以噪音会使发声物种的社会和生态网络退化。
Sound and its diminishment also matter for practical reasons. As sound travels through dense vegetation or murky water, it gives us information about unseen or hard-to-measure trends in biodiversity. Land managers use the diversity of sounds in rainforests to rapidly assess the vitality and diversity of ecosystems. It would take decades to catch and identify every species, yet sound recordings capture some of the essence of biodiversity within hours.
声音及其衰减也有实际的用途。当声音在浓密的植被或浑浊的水中传播时，它给我们提供了关于生物多样性中看不见或难以测量的趋势的信息。土地管理者利用热带雨林声音的多样性来快速评估生态系统的活力和多样性。捕捉和识别每一个物种需要几十年的时间，但声音录音在几个小时内就能捕捉到一些生物多样性的实质。
Humans are also affected by environmental noise, with complaints about noise pollution dating to the very first cities, recorded on clay tablets from Babylonia. This noise is no mere inconvenience: its stresses create physiological burdens that sicken and kill. The European Environment Agency estimates that environmental noise in Europe causes 12,000 premature deaths and 48,000 new cases of heart disease per year.
人类也受到环境噪音的影响，有关噪音污染的抱怨可以追溯到最早的城市，记录在古巴比伦王国的泥版文书上。噪音带来的不仅仅是不便：它引起的心理压力造成生理负担，使人生病和死亡。欧洲环境署估计，欧洲的环境噪音每年导致1.2万人过早死亡和4.8万人新增心脏病病例。