Notes and noises in nature: not a swan song?

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Professor Hans Slabbekoorn, Leiden University
• Friday 23 January 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Janet Gibson.

Abstract

Nature is full of music, from tiny birds with melodious songs and elaborate repertoires to majestic whales with inaudibly low voices propagating around the globe. As far as we can tell, however, the music is not often just for pleasure and has evolved serving a purpose. Animals are almost continuously busy with their sonic flirts and fights, whether we hear them or not, in air and water, day and night. The acoustic ecology of species-specific habitats has shaped this music over evolutionary time. The circumstances, however, for the function and evolution of animal communication have changed in air and in water, with the global spread of noisy human activities. In the Anthropocene, we can even speak of ‘acoustic climate change’ and attention and action is required for moderating the acoustic future of the earth for the sake of animal song persistence and our own physical and mental health.

Biography

Hans Slabbekoorn is professor in Acoustic Ecology & Behaviour. He did his BSc and MSc in Biology at Utrecht University (1988-1994), and received his PhD at Leiden University (1994-1998). After post-doctoral positions at San Francisco State University (1998-2001) and back at Leiden University (2001-2004), he stayed in Leiden at the Institute of Biology and became Assistant Professor in 2004, Associate Professor in 2012, and Full Professor in 2022. He has been away for brief periods as visiting professor, at Paris Nanterre, France (2011), NFU , Harbin, China (2015), FUB , Salvador, Brazil (2017), and Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo (2025). Over the years, he has worked on plants, primates, birds, fishes, marine mammals, and invertebrates. In recent and ongoing projects, he is investigating the effects of noise and light pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and he is particularly interested in applying the one health concept to urban ecology and providing fundamental knowledge to ecological impact assessments of the offshore wind energy transition. Besides research, he is dedicated to teaching and has been responsible for courses on: Behaviour & Conservation, Trends in Behaviour & Ecology, Animal Behaviour and Experimental Design, Advanced Academic Skills, Urban Ecology & Evolution, and seminar series on Human Evolution and Animal Personality.

This talk is part of the Darwin College Lecture Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Annual Food Agenda
• Cambridge Infectious Diseases
• Centre for Health Leadership and Enterprise
• Chris Davis' list
• Darwin College Lecture Series
• Darwin Lectures and Seminars
• DevBio
• Featured lists
• Featured talks
• Graduate-Seminars
• Guy Emerson's list
• Hanchen DaDaDash
• History and Philosophy of Science long list
• Humanitas and General Science
• Inference Group Summary
• Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue
• Major Public Lectures in Cambridge
• Martin's interesting talks
• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
• Talks related to sustainability and the environment
• custom
• history
• personal list

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.