Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary
Anthropogenic noise negatively impacts many species. One of the more insidious effects of elevated noise levels is the reduction in area over which animals are able to acoustically communicate, often termed communication masking. This study utilizes modeling approaches to evaluate relative levels of...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:2949d7425bb84f5a9ca460dc54541c7d 2023-05-15T15:36:54+02:00 Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary Cholewiak, D Clark, CW Ponirakis, D Frankel, A Hatch, LT Risch, D Stanistreet, JE Thompson, M Vu, E Van Parijs, SM 2018-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00875 https://doaj.org/article/2949d7425bb84f5a9ca460dc54541c7d EN eng Inter-Research https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v36/p59-75/ https://doaj.org/toc/1863-5407 https://doaj.org/toc/1613-4796 1863-5407 1613-4796 doi:10.3354/esr00875 https://doaj.org/article/2949d7425bb84f5a9ca460dc54541c7d Endangered Species Research, Vol 36, Pp 59-75 (2018) Zoology QL1-991 Botany QK1-989 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00875 2022-12-31T03:19:13Z Anthropogenic noise negatively impacts many species. One of the more insidious effects of elevated noise levels is the reduction in area over which animals are able to acoustically communicate, often termed communication masking. This study utilizes modeling approaches to evaluate relative levels of masking for 4 baleen whale species from the combination of current ambient noise conditions and noise from discrete vessels operating in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Acoustic data were collected using bottom-mounted autonomous recorders. One day was analyzed for each of 5 different species-specific sound types, corresponding to peaks in occurrence of fin and humpback whale songs, humpback whale social sounds, minke whale pulse trains and North Atlantic right whale gunshots. Source levels for animals and 3 categories of vessels were calculated empirically; sound propagation was modeled using Bellhop ray tracing. An agent-based modeling framework was used to calculate changes in communication space (CS) in comparison to reference conditions (10 dB lower than current ambient noise). In these single-day snapshots, current ambient noise and noise from vessels for which automatic identification system (AIS) data were available contribute most heavily to loss of CS, followed by whale-watching and fishing vessels. Right whale gunshots experience the least amount of masking, while fin, humpback and minke whale signals experience masking levels of 80% or more. While these results incorporate several simplifying assumptions, this study further develops the framework by which to comparatively quantify masking, providing information on the relative degree of masking experienced between species and allowing for important insights on the relative contributions of different anthropogenic sound sources. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whale Humpback Whale minke whale North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Endangered Species Research 36 59 75 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English |
topic |
Zoology QL1-991 Botany QK1-989 |
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Zoology QL1-991 Botany QK1-989 Cholewiak, D Clark, CW Ponirakis, D Frankel, A Hatch, LT Risch, D Stanistreet, JE Thompson, M Vu, E Van Parijs, SM Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
topic_facet |
Zoology QL1-991 Botany QK1-989 |
description |
Anthropogenic noise negatively impacts many species. One of the more insidious effects of elevated noise levels is the reduction in area over which animals are able to acoustically communicate, often termed communication masking. This study utilizes modeling approaches to evaluate relative levels of masking for 4 baleen whale species from the combination of current ambient noise conditions and noise from discrete vessels operating in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Acoustic data were collected using bottom-mounted autonomous recorders. One day was analyzed for each of 5 different species-specific sound types, corresponding to peaks in occurrence of fin and humpback whale songs, humpback whale social sounds, minke whale pulse trains and North Atlantic right whale gunshots. Source levels for animals and 3 categories of vessels were calculated empirically; sound propagation was modeled using Bellhop ray tracing. An agent-based modeling framework was used to calculate changes in communication space (CS) in comparison to reference conditions (10 dB lower than current ambient noise). In these single-day snapshots, current ambient noise and noise from vessels for which automatic identification system (AIS) data were available contribute most heavily to loss of CS, followed by whale-watching and fishing vessels. Right whale gunshots experience the least amount of masking, while fin, humpback and minke whale signals experience masking levels of 80% or more. While these results incorporate several simplifying assumptions, this study further develops the framework by which to comparatively quantify masking, providing information on the relative degree of masking experienced between species and allowing for important insights on the relative contributions of different anthropogenic sound sources. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cholewiak, D Clark, CW Ponirakis, D Frankel, A Hatch, LT Risch, D Stanistreet, JE Thompson, M Vu, E Van Parijs, SM |
author_facet |
Cholewiak, D Clark, CW Ponirakis, D Frankel, A Hatch, LT Risch, D Stanistreet, JE Thompson, M Vu, E Van Parijs, SM |
author_sort |
Cholewiak, D |
title |
Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
title_short |
Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
title_full |
Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
title_fullStr |
Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
title_full_unstemmed |
Communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
title_sort |
communicating amidst the noise: modeling the aggregate influence of ambient and vessel noise on baleen whale communication space in a national marine sanctuary |
publisher |
Inter-Research |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00875 https://doaj.org/article/2949d7425bb84f5a9ca460dc54541c7d |
genre |
baleen whale Humpback Whale minke whale North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale |
genre_facet |
baleen whale Humpback Whale minke whale North Atlantic North Atlantic right whale |
op_source |
Endangered Species Research, Vol 36, Pp 59-75 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/esr/v36/p59-75/ https://doaj.org/toc/1863-5407 https://doaj.org/toc/1613-4796 1863-5407 1613-4796 doi:10.3354/esr00875 https://doaj.org/article/2949d7425bb84f5a9ca460dc54541c7d |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00875 |
container_title |
Endangered Species Research |
container_volume |
36 |
container_start_page |
59 |
op_container_end_page |
75 |
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1766367339919441920 |