Dear colleagues, On behalf of my coauthors, I am pleased to announce the publication of our article:
Zhitao Wang, Paul E. Nachtigall, Tomonari Akamatsu, Kexiong Wang, Yuping Wu, Jianchang Liu, Guoqin Duan, Hanjiang Cao, Ding Wang, Passive acoustic monitoring the diel, lunar, seasonal and tidal patterns in the biosonar activity of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in the Pearl River Estuary, China, PLOS ONE, 2015, 10(11): e0141807, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141807 Abstract: A growing demand for sustainable energy has led to an increase in construction of offshore windfarms. Guishan windmill farm will be constructed in the Pearl River Estuary, China, which sustains the world’s largest known population of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (*Sousa chinensis*). Dolphin conservation is an urgent issue in this region. By using passive acoustic monitoring, a baseline distribution of data on this species in the Pearl River Estuary during pre-construction period had been collected. Dolphin biosonar detection and its diel, lunar, seasonal and tidal patterns were examined using a Generalized Linear Model. Significant higher echolocation detections at night than during the day, in winter-spring than in summer-autumn, at high tide than at flood tide were recognized. Significant higher echolocation detections during the new moon were recognized at night time. The diel, lunar and seasonal patterns for the echolocation encounter duration also significantly varied. These patterns could be due to the spatial-temporal variability of dolphin prey and illumination conditions. The baseline information will be useful for driving further effective action on the conservation of this species and in facilitating later assessments of the effects of the offshore windfarm on the dolphins by comparing the baseline to post construction and post mitigation efforts. The article can be accessed here: *http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141807 <http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0141807>* With best regards, Zhitao Wang Zhitao Wang, Doctoral candidate Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Donghu East Road 5#, Wuhan 430074, P.R. China Email: w <[email protected]>[email protected] Mobile: 86-15972986197 Fax: 86-27-87491267
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