2026
Good soil health supports efforts to tackle challenges including biodiversity recovery, climate change, flood risk and agricultural productivity. Developments in passive acoustic technology are creating opportunities to monitor soil health at greater scales and in less invasive ways, i.e. recording units collecting data over prolonged periods from multiple sites. This approach has already been used for above ground and underwater habitats, and new research from the Leverhulme Centre is exploring how to interpret the below ground soundscape.
Our new briefing presents context, initial findings and outlines how future work will deepen understanding of the links between soil health and soundscapes, with practical implications for improving soil health data and sustainable farming practices.
Related Projects
Ecoacoustic Data Analytics
Advancing AI methods to determine ecosystem composition from acoustic recordings, distinguishing species, geophonic & anthropogenic sounds in soundscapes as well as flagging unusual or unanticipated sounds.
Ecoacoustics for assessing ecosystem health and function, from air to soil
Developing scaleable, transferable, and open approaches for ecoacoustics to assess nature recovery across global ecosystems
The role of regenerative farming for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
We utilise both standardised and cutting-edge methods to explore biodiversity and ecosystem functioning along a land use gradient to better understand the role of regenerative farming.
