Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas)
Noise and anthropogenic disturbances from vessel traffic are an important threat to the recovery of the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga population. The consequences of acoustic masking could be particularly adverse in the case of critical vocalizations that maintain contact between moth...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
2021
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Online Access: | https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v40.5521 |
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ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/5521 2023-05-15T15:41:40+02:00 Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) Vergara, Valeria Wood, Jason Lesage, Véronique Ames, Audra Mikus, Marie-Ana Michaud, Robert 2021-07-15 text/html application/pdf application/epub+zip text/xml https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v40.5521 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13735 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13733 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13734 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13736 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521 doi:10.33265/polar.v40.5521 Copyright (c) 2021 Valeria Vergara, Jason Wood, Véronique Lesage, Audra Ames, Marie-Ana Mikus, Robert Michaud https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 CC-BY-NC Polar Research; Vol. 40 (2021): Special Cluster: Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas): knowledge from the wild, human care and TEK 1751-8369 Communication masking communication range active space vessel traffic noise pollution anthropogenic noise info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2021 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v40.5521 2023-01-04T23:49:34Z Noise and anthropogenic disturbances from vessel traffic are an important threat to the recovery of the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga population. The consequences of acoustic masking could be particularly adverse in the case of critical vocalizations that maintain contact between mothers and their dependent but mobile calves. This study models the communication range of adults, sub-adults and newborn beluga contact calls in the presence and absence of vessels in an important summering area for this population. Ambient noise measurements, a composite beluga audiogram and apparent source levels of adult/sub-adult and newborn calls, informed the model. Apparent source levels were estimated from received levels of contact calls produced by four individuals carrying digital acoustic tags in the SLE, Canada, and from received levels of calls recorded from two adults and a newborn calf at an aquarium, at known distances from a calibrated hydrophone. The median communication ranges were over 18 times larger for SLE adult and sub-adult calls than for newborn calls, with a 57 and 53% reduction in range in the presence of vessel noise, respectively. For newborn calls, this results in a median range of 170 m in vessel noise. These first estimates of the communication range of beluga vocalizations with a known function suggest that masking of the quiet calls of newborns by anthropogenic noise could impair mother–calf contact. Article in Journal/Newspaper Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Polar Research Polar Research (E-Journal) Canada Polar Research 40 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research (E-Journal) |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
topic |
Communication masking communication range active space vessel traffic noise pollution anthropogenic noise |
spellingShingle |
Communication masking communication range active space vessel traffic noise pollution anthropogenic noise Vergara, Valeria Wood, Jason Lesage, Véronique Ames, Audra Mikus, Marie-Ana Michaud, Robert Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) |
topic_facet |
Communication masking communication range active space vessel traffic noise pollution anthropogenic noise |
description |
Noise and anthropogenic disturbances from vessel traffic are an important threat to the recovery of the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga population. The consequences of acoustic masking could be particularly adverse in the case of critical vocalizations that maintain contact between mothers and their dependent but mobile calves. This study models the communication range of adults, sub-adults and newborn beluga contact calls in the presence and absence of vessels in an important summering area for this population. Ambient noise measurements, a composite beluga audiogram and apparent source levels of adult/sub-adult and newborn calls, informed the model. Apparent source levels were estimated from received levels of contact calls produced by four individuals carrying digital acoustic tags in the SLE, Canada, and from received levels of calls recorded from two adults and a newborn calf at an aquarium, at known distances from a calibrated hydrophone. The median communication ranges were over 18 times larger for SLE adult and sub-adult calls than for newborn calls, with a 57 and 53% reduction in range in the presence of vessel noise, respectively. For newborn calls, this results in a median range of 170 m in vessel noise. These first estimates of the communication range of beluga vocalizations with a known function suggest that masking of the quiet calls of newborns by anthropogenic noise could impair mother–calf contact. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vergara, Valeria Wood, Jason Lesage, Véronique Ames, Audra Mikus, Marie-Ana Michaud, Robert |
author_facet |
Vergara, Valeria Wood, Jason Lesage, Véronique Ames, Audra Mikus, Marie-Ana Michaud, Robert |
author_sort |
Vergara, Valeria |
title |
Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) |
title_short |
Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) |
title_full |
Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) |
title_fullStr |
Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Can you hear me? Impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered St. Lawrence belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) |
title_sort |
can you hear me? impacts of underwater noise on communication space of adult, sub-adult and calf contact calls of endangered st. lawrence belugas (delphinapterus leucas) |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v40.5521 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Polar Research |
genre_facet |
Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Polar Research |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol. 40 (2021): Special Cluster: Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas): knowledge from the wild, human care and TEK 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13735 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13733 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13734 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521/13736 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/5521 doi:10.33265/polar.v40.5521 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2021 Valeria Vergara, Jason Wood, Véronique Lesage, Audra Ames, Marie-Ana Mikus, Robert Michaud https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v40.5521 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
40 |
_version_ |
1766374562113519616 |