Examining the role outdoor recreation systems play in changing small temperate aquatic ecosystem soundscapes

Natural sounds play vital recreational and ecological roles across small aquatic ecosystems. Given the density and diversity of species reliant on these auditory environments, protecting natural soundscapes from growing forms of unsustainable human-use is important. Changing soundscape qualities with growing unnatural sources can herald species, habitat, or small ecosystem changes. In the case of small aquatic natural areas (SANAs), which face disturbances like unsustainable nature-based outdoor recreation with understudied ecological fates, some of these changes forecast unfavorable outcomes. Outdoor recreation induces direct (i.e., consumptive) ecological changes through fishing, hunting, or vegetation trampling/extraction. Conversely, boating, swimming, hiking, and natural feature viewing spark indirect (i.e., non-consumptive) ecological changes by altering wildlife behavior, re-organizing feeding relationships, or decreasing soundscape quality. In this work, we illuminate the current state of knowledge about outdoor recreational effects and soundscapes common within the Anthropocene. This work builds an understanding of recophony, or the suite of sounds from various nature-based recreational activities. Our system coverage includes small aquatic ecosystems like ponds, marshes, swamps, streams, and waterfalls. Through literature reviews and limited system-specific evaluations, we forge management questions for each small ecosystem and describe applied research paths. Our findings indicate that consistent recreational noise contributes to abnormal species communication patterns, altered species interactions, and conflicts among various user groups resulting from noise pollution. We encourage SANA managers and scholars to observe how specific species, habitats, and small freshwater ecosystems respond to diverse recreational uses. Finally, we challenge the aquatic-based outdoor recreation communities to consider both how recophony shapes user experiences but also affects the integrity of the natural soundscape during and after activity engagement.