CIBRA was founded in 1989 as the ‘Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioacoustics’. A few years later, the laboratory changed its name to ‘Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioacoustics and Environmental Research’ to reflect the importance and applications of bioacoustics in the environmental sector, particularly in monitoring and protecting biodiversity. In the early 1990s, the working group, led by Gianni Pavan, consisted of Junio Fabrizio Borsani, Claudio Fossati, Michele Manghi, Marco Priano and later Giovanni Caltavuturo.
The CIBRA group (Gianni Pavan, Claudio Fossati, Michele Manghi and Marco Priano) on the Aleph during a research cruise in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, 1997, with Guido Gnone (Genoa Aquarium). Photo D.M.Rossi.
In 1994, the first research cruise dedicated to marine mammals took place, using state-of-the-art equipment. Since then, activity at sea has been constant. In the laboratory, instruments, data collection protocols and analysis systems, including the SeaPro spectrographic visualisation software, were designed and developed. The solutions created were then applied and tested at sea. It is precisely this approach, based on development and practical application, that has enabled the group to acquire comprehensive and effective skills, which are now reflected in the numerous environmental noise and noise pollution surveys that CIBRA conducts in collaboration with external organisations. In over 30 years of activity, the Centre has established itself in Italy and abroad in research related to underwater acoustics and the study and protection of marine mammals. The latter topic, in particular, has developed mainly in relation to the problem of the impact of man-made noise, for example from naval sonar, geophysical prospecting with airguns, shipping traffic, and also from the increasing number of industrial activities at sea, such as offshore wind farms. This broader research touches on the topics of acoustic ecology and environmental acoustics, leading CIBRA to participate in the creation of a new discipline in 2014, ecoacoustics, which combines bioacoustics and ecology, and to the founding of the International Ecoacoustic Society.
Teaching
In 2006, the course ‘Terrestrial and Marine Bioacoustics’ was established as part of the Master’s Degree in Natural Sciences. Given the uniqueness of the course, taught by Gianni Pavan, a researcher at the University of Pavia since 2005, new training opportunities opened up for students not only from Pavia but also from other universities. Subsequently renamed ‘Bioacoustics’, it is now an optional 6-credit course in the Master’s Degree in Biodiversity Conservation, Education and Scientific Communication and in the Master’s Degree in Experimental and Applied Biology. Numerous bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral theses have been written at CIBRA, also in collaboration with other Italian and foreign universities.
Following the death of Gianni Pavan in 2023, the course is currently taught by Claudio Fossati as a contract lecturer. The lectures guide students through the world of bioacoustics, starting with the physical basics of sound and its propagation, followed by an overview of the vocalisations of various classes of animals and their ethological and evolutionary significance. The topics of noise pollution and related mitigation techniques are addressed. Finally, sound recording and analysis tools are illustrated, with numerous practical references related to ongoing research.
Research and collaborations
Over the years, CIBRA has developed important national and international collaborations: Italian Navy; NATO SACLANT Centre (later NURC, now CMRE) in the international SOLMAR/MMRMP project; from 1999 to 2003, it was funded by the Office of Naval Research (USA) to conduct underwater bioacoustics research in partnership with NURC and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
It has collaborated with Columbia University – Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, participating in numerous seismic cruises to monitor marine mammals and provide advice on the application of mitigation policies required by the US government to protect the species in question; with the US Navy’s SPAWAR Center for studies on strandings of Ziphius cavirostris, and with the International Whaling Commission. He has worked with the EDA European Defence Agency on the protection of marine mammals during military exercises. He has contributed substantially to the drafting of the ‘Mitigation policies’ of ACCOBAMS, NATO and NMFS (National Marine Fishery Service, USA).
Since 2004, it has been collaborating with ACCOBAMS and the Ministry of the Environment for the protection of marine mammals from underwater noise, for which CIBRA has acquired important expertise and is often invited to participate in oceanographic cruises with its own personnel and instruments. In this context, its staff has been invited to Brazil and Taiwan (on behalf of the European Commission) during the preliminary authorisation phases for offshore wind farms.
In Italy, it collaborates with the Natural History Museum of Milan; the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Padua; the Aquarium of Genoa; the Tethys Institute; CONISMA (National Interuniversity Consortium for Marine Sciences); the Carabinieri Biodiversity Group (formerly the State Forestry Corps); and ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research).
Since 2000, it has collaborated with INFN (National Institute of Nuclear Physics) and INGV (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) on the NEMOKM3NET, EMSO and SMO projects for acoustic monitoring of the underwater environment using fibre optic cable platforms.
The Ministry of the Environment has commissioned the Interdisciplinary Centre for Bioacoustics and Environmental Research at the University of Pavia to create and maintain the National Database on Marine Mammal Strandings on the national coastline under the auspices of ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area) and PELAGOS, currently managed by Dr Michela Podestà, Natural History Museum of Milan. It also participated in the initial stages of the creation of the National Register of Impulsive Noises.
It currently collaborates with the University of Toulon and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-CNRS (France) on the EUROPAM project and with PELAGOS on the TURSIONET and CLAPS projects.