Analysis of the environmental noise in Laguna de Términos

What is it about?

The recordings were made at 20 stations at a sampling rate of 48 kHz with 16 bits resolution, from which 1-minute segments were created in WAV format for each station. The environmental noise in the lagoon was calculated as a noise-to-highest-value ratio (NHR) and averaged to obtain four values for each of the seven sampling periods that represent four different geographical areas of Laguna de Términos (western and eastern mouths, center, and river mouth).

Featured Image

Why is it important?

NHR changed from one sampling to another. Only in October 2005 there was a large decrease in NHR near the river mouth due to the pass through Laguna de Términos of two very strong hurricanes (Stan and Wilma) one week before sampling was performed. At the western and eastern mouths (Bocas del Carmen and Puerto Real) NHR seems to follow a similar pattern over time, which may be related to the boat traffic at Ciudad del Carmen and Isla Aguada, respectively, and are the areas where the environmental noise decreased significantly in March 2007.

Perspectives