Center Affiliates receive NSF-CNH2 Grant

Professors Bryan Pijanowski (FNR), convener of the C4E Biodiversity research area and lead of the Global Soundscapes project, and Laura Zanotti (ANTH), Associate Director in C4E, recently received an NSF award in their Coupled Natural and Human Systems program entitled “CNH2-L: Using Sound to Advance Conceptual Frameworks of Resilience of Integrated Grassland-Pastoralist Systems.”

As project PI Pijanowski explains, “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.”

In this study, the team will investigate features of a human-pastoral system that may demonstrate resiliency, thereby promoting sustainability. As one basis for analysis, they will use recordings of the sounds of wind, thunder, ice breaking, deer, and birds, among others, which are often used by herders to determine when to move to summer landscapes, or if damaging weather may threaten herds or homes. A key question the team asks is: “As herders change their ways of life and engage differently with traditional forms of knowledge, what does this change 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.

As co-PI Laura Zanotti notes, “The collaborative and engaged design of this research project is significant. Team members will work alongside knowledge holders to co-produce dynamic information about socio-ecological soundscapes.” Thus, the project is, at its core,  multi-disciplinary and engaged.

The project comes out of the Center’s signature project, the Center for Global Soundscapes, led by Bryan Pijanowski, and more specifically, the initiative on vanishing soundscapes.  More information is available at: https://centerforglobalsoundscapes.org/vanishing-soundscapes/

Acknowledgement of Indigenous Caretakers: We acknowledge Purdue University is located on the traditional homelands of the Woodland People. We honor and appreciate these indigenous caretakers which include the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Lenape (Delaware), Myaamia (Miami), and Shawnee People.