At a glance
- Studied how noise pollution affects insects.
- Recorded insect sounds near participants' local roads and used the sounds to train an algorithm to identify them.
- Participants learnt more about the nature on their doorsteps.
Nature Overheard: Tune in to Your Streets
This project has now closed.
Our mass community science project investigated the impact of noise pollution on insects near roads.
Thank you to all who took part.
Analysis of the results is now underway.
Our mass community science project investigated the impact of noise pollution on insects near roads.
What’s it about?
Insects are important for a healthy environment, but noise can make it hard for them to communicate with each other. They may have to change their sounds to be heard in noisy places.
Join us on the Nature Overheard survey, collecting data to better understand how road noise affect insects. Or take part in other activities to support this research while you build your own scientific skills and knowledge.
Contact us
If you have specific questions, you can email the Nature Overheard team at: communityscience@nhm.ac.uk
Sign up to our community science mailing list keep to hear news about this and other projects.
Project summary and updates
90,000
community scientists took part at four different participatory levels
70 hours
of audio was collected
a road as long as Everest is high
was the total length of roadside sampled
You can read more in the project summary (PDF 3.1MB).
We are currently analysing the data collected by the project. We'll report our findings here.
What else could I do?
If you are interested in wildlife monitoing and protection, you could:
- Sign up to newsletter to find up about upcoming projects
- Read about how to get started with wildlife monitoring
- Take our look at our survey calendar of projects you can get involved in throughout the year around the UK
- Take an insect ID quiz
How well do you know your local wildlife?
Are you an informed intentifier or a nature newbie? Test your knowledge of the amazing animals and plants that live near you with our fun and challenging quizzes.
How this work can help insects
Until now, we have not been able to investigate on a large scale how noise affects insects. But new technology makes studying this problem easier. Audio recordings can be analysed using artificial intelligence and machine learning, allowing us to:
- Automate the categorisation of sounds
- Identify any changes in the sounds that insects and other animals are making in urban areas
- Determine which human and mechanical sounds may be having an impact on the environment
Collecting as many audio samples as possible is important: the more data that is collected, the easier it becomes to analyse the recordings.
Although decoding audio recordings is difficult, the more we have the easier it becomes.
Ed Baker
Museum scientist
Co-created with school students
To stimulate positive action and investigate nature in urban environments, we asked students across the country aged 11-14 to propose research questions that interested them.
Nature Overheard's overall theme emerged from these questions. Then months of further collaboration between school students and Museum scientists shaped the project's planned activities.
Data from the project is being stored in our new Data Ecosystem, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Keep updated on the project
Do you want to know more about the project and keep up to date on its progress? Then please sign up to our Community Science team's newsletter.
Receive email updates from the Museum’s Community Science team - including project findings, training opportunities, evaluation surveys and new community science projects we’d love you to join - as well as other Museum news, exhibitions, events, services and fundraising activities. We may include third-party content from our corporate partners and other museums in these emails. We will not share your personal details with these third parties. You must be over the age of 13. Privacy notice.
Project team
This project was co-designed by young people and Museum scientists. The following members of Museum staff lead its delivery:
- Ed Baker, Acoustic Biology Researcher
- Giuliana Sinclair, Community Science Officer
- Dr Jessica Wardlaw, Community Science Programme Developer
- Fareeda Atwan, National Learning Programmes Partnerships Manager
- Victoria Thomson, Communications Manager
- Freya Stannard, Head of National Programmes
- Lucy Robinson, Community Science Programme Manager
Our delivery partners, Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire & Merseyside (CLM) are working with local communities in north-west England to collect Nature Overheard survey data. Groundwork CLM is both a charitable trust and a social enterprise that has been working to build more sustainable communities since 1985. If you are interested in facilitated Nature Overheard workshops in the north-west, please contact Groundwork at clm@groundwork.org.uk
Related pages
Funding
Nature Overheard is part of the Urban Nature Project. We thank all those who have generously contributed, including:
