Simbiosis y Soberanía

Simbiosis y Soberanía: ¿Cómo suena la soberanía?
(Symbiosis + Sovereignty: What does sovereignty sound like?)


Simbiosis y Soberanía is an intersectional and decolonial coral reef soundscape ecology and oral history project rooted in Puerto Rico’s coastal and coral reef communities and centered on the question, “¿Como suena la soberanía?” (What does sovereignty sound like?). The project addresses a socio-ecological and justice gap in coral reef restoration and conservation by combining passive acoustic monitoring of coral reef soundscapes, multilingual oral histories, and a community sound map and archive to link coral reef monitoring with community‑rooted histories, sovereignty, and ocean justice in Puerto Rico.

In partnership with University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC), Institute for Socio-Ecological Research (ISER Caribe) and University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM), the project will characterize baseline reef soundscapes across restoration‑relevant site categories in Puerto Rico; interpret those soundscapes in relation to ecosystem state, restoration intervention, ecological condition, disturbance history, and political ecology; and build a living archive of community‑contributed recordings and oral histories connected to Puerto Rico’s coasts and coral reefs.

Using sovereignty as a central lens, the project examines the ongoing effects of colonial governance on coral reefs, conservation and restoration efforts, and coastal communities. It treats soundscape ecology as both an ecological research method and a decolonial listening practice, responding to the identified need for soundscape research that rejects color‑blind, white normative listening and instead centers marginalized community knowledge and socio‑ecological relationships.

Anticipated outcomes of the project include: an in situ site‑level reef soundscape data catalog and summaries; narrative and visual interpretation of soundscape patterns across focal geographies; a multilingual oral history and community sound archive and map; and an integrated report that brings both project components into one analytical and narrative framework; and a grounded foundation for future phases of Simbiosis y Soberanía-- including continued coral reef monitoring and a public listening and immersive sound archive experience.