Panu Somervuo, Tomas Roslin, Brian L. Fisher, Bess Hardwick, Deirdre Kerdraon, Dimby Raharinjanahary, Eric Tsiriniaina Rajoelison, Patrik Lauha, Lukas Griem, Petteri Lehikoinen, Pekka Niittynen, Esko Piirainen, Markus Lumme, Ville-Matti Riihikoski, Orlando Acevedo-Charry, Solny A. Adalsteinsson, Maaz Ahmad, Sandra Alcobia, Jón Aldará, Nigel R. Andrew, Sten Anslan, Alexandre Antonelli, Julieta Soledad Arena, Santiago Arroyo Almeida, Ines Aster, Hannu Autto, Anahi Aviles Gamboa, Joaquín Baixeras, Mario Baldauf, Rosario Balestrieri, Gaia Giedre Banelyte, Adrian Barrett, Pedro Beja, Thomas Olof Berg, Benjamin Bergerot, Elizabeth G. Biro, Pedro G. Blendinger, Loïc Bollache, Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, Stephane Boyer, Erika Bridell, Martyn Brotherson, Leslie Robert Brown, Hannah L. Buckley, Erika Buscardo, Nokuphila Buthelezi, Luciano Cagnolo, Alice Calvente, Giovanni Capobianco, Laura Carreón-Palau, Suzanne Carriere, Bradley S. Case, Jenyu Chang, Juan Matías Chaparro, Chi-Ling Chen, Christine Chicoine, Madeleine Christensson, Francisco Collado Rosique, William Colom Montero, Ricardo do Sacramento da Fonseca, Luís P. Da Silva, Anamaria Dal Molin, Tad Dallas, Maria Carla de Francesco, Jorge Arturo Del Ángel-Rodríguez, Ricardo Díaz-Delgado, Thomas Dirnböck, Ika Djukic, Philile Dladla, Jeremías Domínguez Masciale, Thiago Dorigo, Errol Douwes, Torbjørn Ekrem, Helena Enderskog, Charlotta Erefur, Muhammad Fahad, Mohsen Falahati-Anbaran, Arielle Farrell, Gabriel Ferland, Emanuele Ferrari, Axa Figueiredo, Fernando Forero, Inga Freiberga, Andrea Frosch-Radivo, Luis Alberto Ganchozo Intriago, Laura Garzoli, Paola Giacomotti, Andros T. Gianuca, Olivier Gilg, Vladimir Gilg, Fanney Gísladóttir, Ryan Glowacki, Brigitte Gottsberger, Jocelyn Gregoire, Elli Groner, Patrícia Guedes, Aimee Michelle Guile, Peter Haase, Fazal Hadi, Magdalena Haidegger, Leivur Janus Hansen, Lars Holst Hansen, Reid Harrop, Harald Havnås, David Herrera Báez, Chris C. Y. Ho, Denise Hohenbühel, Marketa Houska Tahadlova, Jari Hänninen, Linda Höglund, Kolbrún Í Haraldsstovu, Elise Imbeau, Jasmin Inkinen, Masae Iwamoto Ishihara, Abigail C. Jackson, Gunnar Jansson, Rohit Jha, Gerald Kager, Rhea Kahale, Oula Kalttopää, Elizabeth Wanjiru Karai, Dave Karlsson, Andrea Kaus-Thiel, Asghar Khan, Qaisar Khan, Keishi Kimoto, Shadrack Chumo Kipngetich, Clemens Klante, Leif Klemedtsson, Mårten Klinth, Janne Koskinen, Matti Kotakorpi, Agnes-Katharina Kreiling, Irmgard Krisai-Greilhuber, Erik Kristensen, Sebastian König, Silke Langenheder, Kalevi Laurila, Pascaline Le Gouar, Nicolas Lecomte, Erin Lecomte, Paula Moraes Leitman, Jorge L. León-Cortés, Daijiang Li, John Loehr, Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde, Mehsen Makari, Gabriela Giselle Mangini, Michael Maroschek, Vanessa A. Mata, Shunsuke Matsuoka, Thais Mazzafera, Paul G. McDonald, Laura Meinert, Mayra Meléndez-González, Angela M. Mendoza-Henao, Sebastien Moreau, Jérôme Moreau, Jesper Mosbacher, Esteban Moyer, Anna Mrazova, Samantha Mteshane, Nancy Wangari Mungai, Gema Muñoz Herraiz, Andrea Murillo-Vázquez, Simona Musazzi, Marko Mutanen, Jörg Müller, Rebeca Navarro Canales, Monica Ndlovu, Annegret Nicolai, Armin Niessner, Jenni Nordén, Paweł Nowak, Erin O’Connell, Arianna Orru, Thomas Pagnon, Yurani Nayive Pantoja-Diaz, Mikko Pentinsaari, Sebastian Pilloni, Adrian Pinder, Thiago A. Pinheiro, Sergei Põlme, Luke L. Powell, Gisela Pröll, Paola Pulido-Santacruz, Enrique Queralt, Mark Tristan Quilantang, Kirsty Quinlan, Ricardo Ramirez, Juha Rankinen, Micaela Del Valle Rasino, Rui Rebelo, Wolfram Remmers, Franziska Retz, Evelin Reyes, Gonzalo Rivas Torres, Hanna M. K. Rogers, Inês T. Rosário, Sidney Rosário Da Rosàrio da Costa, Tobias Rütting, Johannes Sahlstén, Carole Saliba, Teppo Salmirinne, Katerina Sam, Douglas Santos, Margarida Santos-Reis, Michel Sawan, Benjamin Schattanek-Wiesmair, Pauliina Schiestl-Aalto, Niels Martin Schmidt, Sebastian Seibold, Rupert Seidl, Linda Seifert, Malibongwe Sithole, Elise Sivault, Jessica Smart, Ireneusz Smerczyński, Ayaka Soda, Renata S. Sousa-Lima, Angela Stanisci, Margaret C. Stanley, Daleen Steenkamp, Elisa Stengel, Stefan Stoll, Willem Maartin Strauss, Elisabeth Stur, Maija Sujala, Janne Sundell, Jónína Svavarsdóttir, Leho Tedersoo, Saana Tepsa, Maor Tiko Tikochinsky, Esa-Pekka Tuominen, Stefanie Tweraser, Catalina Ulloa Espinosa, Joni Uusitalo, Mikko Vallinmäki, Fabrice Vannier, Abigail Varela, Emma Vatka, Silja Veikkolainen, Karl Vernes, Phillip C. Watts, Per Weslien, Ciara Wirth, Jana Helga Wisniewski, Amanda B. Young, Robyn Övergaard, Otso Ovaskainen

• Across the world, human (anthropophonic) sounds add to sounds of biological (biophonic) and geophysical (geophonic) origin, with human contributions including both speech and technophony (sounds of technological devices). To characterize society’s contribution to the global soundscapes, we used passive acoustic recorders at 139 sites across 6 continents, sampling both urban green spaces and nearby pristine sites continuously for 3 years in a paired design. Recordings were characterized by bird species richness and by 14 complementary acoustic indices. By relating each index to seasonal, diurnal, climatic and anthropogenic factors, we show here that latitude, time of day and day of year each predict a substantial proportion of variation in key metrics of biophony — whereas anthropophony (speech and traffic) show less predictable patterns. Compared to pristine sites, the soundscape of urban green spaces is more dominated by technophony and less diverse in terms of acoustic energy across frequencies and time steps, with less instances of quiet. We conclude that the global soundscape is formed from a highly predictable rhythm in biophony, with added noise from geophony and anthropophony. At urban sites, animals experience an increasingly noisy background of sound, which poses challenges to efficient communication.