Dear colleagues, My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of the following article:
Marine soundscape variation reveals insights into baleen whales and their environment: a case study in central New Zealand. Victoria E. Warren, Craig McPherson, Giacomo Giorli, Kimberly T. Goetz and Craig A. Radford. Royal Society Open Science, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201503 ABSTRACT Baleen whales reliably produce stereotyped vocalizations, enabling their spatio-temporal distributions to be inferred from acoustic detections. Soundscape analysis provides an integrated approach whereby vocal species, such as baleen whales, are sampled holistically with other acoustic contributors to their environment. Acoustic elements that occur concurrently in space, time and/or frequency can indicate overlaps between free-ranging species and potential stressors. Such information can inform risk assessment framework models. Here, we demonstrate the utility of soundscape monitoring in central New Zealand, an area of high cetacean diversity where potential threats are poorly understood. Pygmy blue whale calls were abundant in the South Taranaki Bight (STB) throughout recording periods and were also detected near KaikÅura during autumn. Humpback, Antarctic blue and Antarctic minke whales were detected in winter and spring, during migration. Wind, rain, tidal and wave activity increased ambient sound levels in both deep- and shallow-water environments across a broad range of frequencies, including those used by baleen whales, and sound from shipping, seismic surveys and earthquakes overlapped in time, space and frequency with whale calls. The results highlight the feasibility of soundscape analysis to quantify and understand potential stressors to free-ranging species, which is essential for conservation and management decisions. The open-access article can be downloaded from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.201503 You are very welcome to contact me via email (vwar...@aucklanduni.ac.nz) if you have any questions. Kind regards, Victoria Warren -- Victoria Warren, Ph.D University of Auckland
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