CNH2-L: Using Sound to Advance Conceptual Frameworks of Resilience of Integrated Grassland-Pastoralist Systems

Grassland biomes are rapidly being lost around the world as they are converted to croplands, mined, and grazed by domesticated livestock. In a few grassland areas, thousands of years of use by native herders has resulted in management systems that are sustainable over time. These systems have become examples of resilient integrated socio-environmental systems.

This study investigates features of a human-pastoral system that may demonstrate resiliency, thereby promoting sustainability. Sounds of wind, thunder, ice breaking, deer, and birds, among others, can be used by herders to determine when to move to summer landscapes, or if damaging weather may threaten herds or homes. Herders pass on this knowledge through calls and songs that codify information about the environment through multiple generations.

This traditional ecological knowledge has helped herders balance the use of grasslands and its productivity. As herders abandon their historical way of life and lose these traditional forms of knowledge, what does this loss of knowledge mean for the future of how grasslands are managed sustainably? This study will answer this and other questions by evaluating critical aspects of the soundscape-pastoralist-grassland system in a large intact grassland system.

The information gained from the research will provide insight that is valuable to grassland managers. The investigators plan to disseminate findings widely, including to students and the general public, on how human-grassland systems can be managed sustainably.

This project co-engages researchers and herders as co-discoverers of knowledge that provides critical information to help understand the coupling, decoupling and potential for recoupling of the pastoral-grassland system. Unique aspects of this work include the use of sound as a "universal variable" across natural, social, and cultural components, the use of soundscapes to monitor the status of the grassland system using passive acoustic sensors and acoustic content analysis, and the use of ethnomusicological approaches to understand the role that sonic practices have on this integrated system and the traditional ecological knowledge of herders.

The merit of the work results from the use of sound to measure the dynamics across human and natural systems, the transdisciplinary nature of the team members and approaches and the co-production of knowledge with local grassland stewards. It holds the potential to clarify the role of complex social and environmental interactions in sustainable living.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.