Blue Carbon is a soundscape composition created in 2026 across two coastal research stations on opposite sides of the planet as part of a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Station in Panama.
Blue carbon ecosystems, mangroves, seagrass and tidal wetlands, sequester carbon faster than terrestrial forests yet are among the most threatened on Earth, their degradation releasing up to a billion tonnes of CO2 annually (Pendleton et al., 2012). Adame et al. (2024) argue all tidal wetlands are blue carbon ecosystems, yet these systems are studied in isolation despite their interdependence. Soundscape composition, theorised by Truax (1984), can reveal that interdependence through environmental field recordings. This research asks: how can multi-channel soundscape composition make the interdependence of blue carbon ecosystems audible, positioning listening as a form of ecological care?
Blue Carbon is an eight-channel composition drawing on hydrophone and terrestrial recordings from reefs, wetlands and tidal zones in Australia and Panama. It introduces: (1) a method treating the biophony–anthrophony balance, an ecoacoustic measure of ecological health, as compositional structure, retaining rather than removing the boat motors saturating reef recordings; (2) a spatial approach weaving fresh and salt water, wetland and reef, surface and depth across eight channels; and (3) a two-site structure joining K'gari (Butchulla Country) with Bocas del Toro, recordings gathered through permission-based engagement with Traditional Owners.
Blue Carbon featured at The Global Composition 2026: Conference on Sound, Media and the Environment, premiering in the opening keynote concert alongside Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, both central to the World Soundscape Project that established acoustic ecology as a discipline and its foremost living practitioners. Hosted by Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences with World Design Capital 2026 Frankfurt Rhein-Main, the work is a major outcome of Barclay's 2026 Queensland–Smithsonian Fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, supported by the Queensland Government and Smithsonian in Washington, DC.
Research Background Blue carbon ecosystems, mangroves, seagrass and tidal wetlands, sequester carbon faster than terrestrial forests yet are among the most threatened on Earth, their degradation releasing up to a billion tonnes of CO2 annually (Pendleton et al., 2012). Adame et al. (2024) argue all tidal wetlands are blue carbon ecosystems, yet these systems are studied in isolation despite their interdependence. Soundscape composition, theorised by Truax (1984), can reveal that interdependence through environmental field recordings. This research asks: how can multi-channel soundscape composition make the interdependence of blue carbon ecosystems audible, positioning listening as a form of ecological care? Research Contribution Blue Carbon is an eight-channel composition drawing on hydrophone and terrestrial recordings from reefs, wetlands and tidal zones in Australia and Panama. It introduces: (1) a method treating the biophony–anthrophony balance, an ecoacoustic measure of ecological health, as compositional structure, retaining rather than removing the boat motors saturating reef recordings; (2) a spatial approach weaving fresh and salt water, wetland and reef, surface and depth across eight channels; and (3) a two-site structure joining K'gari (Butchulla Country) with Bocas del Toro, recordings gathered through permission-based engagement with Traditional Owners. Research Significance Blue Carbon was peer reviewed and selected for The Global Composition 2026: Conference on Sound, Media and the Environment, premiering in the opening keynote concert alongside Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, both central to the World Soundscape Project that established acoustic ecology as a discipline and its foremost living practitioners. Hosted by Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences with World Design Capital 2026 Frankfurt Rhein-Main, the work is a major outcome of Barclay's 2026 Queensland–Smithsonian Fellowship at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, supported by the Queensland Government and Smithsonian in Washington, DC.