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Description
Within the field of soundscape studies, two distinct approaches have consolidated: a human-centric one, focused on people’s perception; one related to soundscape ecology, which assesses biodiversity via bio- and ecoacoustic indices (EIs). These two branches frequently operate in silos, with minimal cross-disciplinary communication or data integration, even when collected from the same areas, as in the case of mountainous ones. To address this gap, the present study cross-references ISO 12913 standardized perceptual data collected from 219 participants during the "Silenzi in Quota" soundwalks, conducted in 10 European natural or protected areas, with EIs computed and bird species identified from 71 binaural recordings in 68 listening stops. Given the beneficial effects of natural sounds on humans, and the role of EIs as proxies for their presence, the goals are: 1) to identify associations between human soundscape perception and EIs, 2) as well as between these perceptual dimensions and bird species richness. Results from a preliminary correlational analysis revealed that more pleasant soundscapes are associated with sites characterized by higher total entropy (H), lower Acoustic Evenness Index (AEI), and higher number of species present, while more eventful soundscapes are related to higher Acoustic Biodiversity Index (BIO) and lower Spectral Entropy (sh) values.