Sound Wave

Many marine and terrestrial animals make sounds. Sound travels in waves through water or air. We can make measurements from the sound waves such as frequency and amplitude, which tell us about the pitch and loudness of the sound, respectively. It is important to understand these features of different animal sounds, as they can help us to estimate how far away we can record these sounds with microphones or hydrophones (underwater microphones). Sometimes we make recordings but we are not sure what animal produced the sounds, so all we can do is describe the signal.