Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise

Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could nega...

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Main Authors: Matthews, Leanna P., Fournet, Michelle E.H., Gabriele, Christine, Klinck, Holger, Parks, Susan E.
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/207
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/natlpark/article/1207/viewcontent/Matthews_BL_2020_Acoustically_advertising.pdf
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spelling ftunivnebraskali:oai:digitalcommons.unl.edu:natlpark-1207 2023-11-12T04:17:24+01:00 Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise Matthews, Leanna P. Fournet, Michelle E.H. Gabriele, Christine Klinck, Holger Parks, Susan E. 2020-03-10T07:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/207 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/natlpark/article/1207/viewcontent/Matthews_BL_2020_Acoustically_advertising.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/207 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/natlpark/article/1207/viewcontent/Matthews_BL_2020_Acoustically_advertising.pdf U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers harbour seals marine mammals noise acoustic communication vocalizations Environmental Education Environmental Policy Environmental Sciences Environmental Studies Fire Science and Firefighting Leisure Studies Natural Resource Economics Natural Resources Management and Policy Nature and Society Relations Other Environmental Sciences Physical and Environmental Geography Public Administration Public Affairs Public Policy and Public Administration Recreation Parks and Tourism Administration text 2020 ftunivnebraskali 2023-10-30T11:54:49Z Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could negatively impact breeding success by limiting communication space. In this study, we investigated whether harbour seals employed anti-masking strategies to maintain communication in the presence of vessel noise in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Harbour seals in this location did not sufficiently adjust source levels or acoustic parameters of vocalizations to compensate for acoustic masking. Instead, for every 1 dB increase in ambient noise, signal excess decreased by 0.84 dB, indicating a reduction in communication space when vessels passed. We suggest that harbour seals may already be acoustically advertising at or near a biologically maximal sound level and therefore lack the ability to increase call amplitude to adjust to changes in their acoustic environment. This may have significant implications for this aquatically breeding pinniped, particularly for populations in high noise regions. Text glacier harbour seal Phoca vitulina Alaska University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL Glacier Bay
institution Open Polar
collection University of Nebraska-Lincoln: DigitalCommons@UNL
op_collection_id ftunivnebraskali
language unknown
topic harbour seals
marine mammals
noise
acoustic communication
vocalizations
Environmental Education
Environmental Policy
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Studies
Fire Science and Firefighting
Leisure Studies
Natural Resource Economics
Natural Resources Management and Policy
Nature and Society Relations
Other Environmental Sciences
Physical and Environmental Geography
Public Administration
Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration
Recreation
Parks and Tourism Administration
spellingShingle harbour seals
marine mammals
noise
acoustic communication
vocalizations
Environmental Education
Environmental Policy
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Studies
Fire Science and Firefighting
Leisure Studies
Natural Resource Economics
Natural Resources Management and Policy
Nature and Society Relations
Other Environmental Sciences
Physical and Environmental Geography
Public Administration
Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration
Recreation
Parks and Tourism Administration
Matthews, Leanna P.
Fournet, Michelle E.H.
Gabriele, Christine
Klinck, Holger
Parks, Susan E.
Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
topic_facet harbour seals
marine mammals
noise
acoustic communication
vocalizations
Environmental Education
Environmental Policy
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Studies
Fire Science and Firefighting
Leisure Studies
Natural Resource Economics
Natural Resources Management and Policy
Nature and Society Relations
Other Environmental Sciences
Physical and Environmental Geography
Public Administration
Public Affairs
Public Policy and Public Administration
Recreation
Parks and Tourism Administration
description Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could negatively impact breeding success by limiting communication space. In this study, we investigated whether harbour seals employed anti-masking strategies to maintain communication in the presence of vessel noise in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Harbour seals in this location did not sufficiently adjust source levels or acoustic parameters of vocalizations to compensate for acoustic masking. Instead, for every 1 dB increase in ambient noise, signal excess decreased by 0.84 dB, indicating a reduction in communication space when vessels passed. We suggest that harbour seals may already be acoustically advertising at or near a biologically maximal sound level and therefore lack the ability to increase call amplitude to adjust to changes in their acoustic environment. This may have significant implications for this aquatically breeding pinniped, particularly for populations in high noise regions.
format Text
author Matthews, Leanna P.
Fournet, Michelle E.H.
Gabriele, Christine
Klinck, Holger
Parks, Susan E.
author_facet Matthews, Leanna P.
Fournet, Michelle E.H.
Gabriele, Christine
Klinck, Holger
Parks, Susan E.
author_sort Matthews, Leanna P.
title Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
title_short Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
title_full Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
title_fullStr Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
title_full_unstemmed Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
title_sort acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise
publisher DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln
publishDate 2020
url https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/207
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/natlpark/article/1207/viewcontent/Matthews_BL_2020_Acoustically_advertising.pdf
geographic Glacier Bay
geographic_facet Glacier Bay
genre glacier
harbour seal
Phoca vitulina
Alaska
genre_facet glacier
harbour seal
Phoca vitulina
Alaska
op_source U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers
op_relation https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/207
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/context/natlpark/article/1207/viewcontent/Matthews_BL_2020_Acoustically_advertising.pdf
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