BRYAN PIJANOWSKILast week, a graduate student in Bryan Pijanowski’s lab offered a last-minute research pitch: to record sounds during the total eclipse of the sun on August 21. Although there was only a week to prepare, the researchers hopped to it, contacting colleagues at museums, universities, and federal agencies around North America to collaborate.
Pijanowski’s group at Purdue University studies nature’s soundscape, and the team has acoustic recorders deployed around the globe—from inside of glaciers to tropical coral reefs and many spots in between. “We’re going to put the acoustic recorders in strategic places in North America,” says Pijanowski of the eclipse recording. That means capturing sounds from all four major biomes—coniferous forests on the Western side of the continent, central grasslands, temperature forests, and coastal ecosystems from Montreal to Puerto Rico—in both the path of totality and in partial-eclipse zones.
There will be about 100 recorders recording sounds from the celestial event. The goal is to see how the eclipse will affect the singing of birds, chirping of insects, and other natural soundscapes during the temporary midnight that ...
