Seasonal trends in underwater ambient noise near St. Lawrence Island and the Bering Strait

Southall, Brandon L.; Southall, H.L.; Antunes, Ricardo; Nichols, Ross; Rouse, Andrew A.; Stafford, Kathleen M.; Robards, Martin D.; Rosenbaum, Howard C.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111283

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The contribution of bearded seal vocalizations to the soundscape was much stronger during periods of low ice concentration. The observed variation in SPL from all months of this study is likely mainly driven by changes in wind speed and ice concentration (Southall et al, 2020), but seals did have some influence on SPL, particularly during the breeding season when the signal-to-noise ratio and received levels of their vocalizations increased the most (Figures 5-7). Because bearded seal calls range mainly within these two frequency bands, displaying a positive relationship between SPL and both call duration and maximum frequency was expected, and was demonstrated in this study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Vocalizations of bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) and their influence on the soundscape of the western Canadian Arctic

Heimrich

Halliday

Frouin‐Mouy

et al. 2020

Marine Mammal Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Vocalizations of bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) and their influence on the soundscape of the western Canadian Arctic

Heimrich

Halliday

Frouin‐Mouy

et al. 2020

Marine Mammal Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The Beaufort Sea is the only study site affected by seasonal ice coverage, which drives presence of both biological and anthropogenic sound sources (Moore and Laidre, 2006;Roth et al, 2012;Jones et al, 2014;Southall et al, 2020), as well as contributing significantly to the soundscape during seasonal freeze-up and melting (Milne and Ganton, 1964;Urick, 1971;Matsumoto et al, 2014;Menze et al, 2017). Monthly sea ice conditions at the Beaufort Sea site (72.443…”

Section: Environmental Variables: Sea Ice Coverage In the Beaufort Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, when sea ice is compact, it has a noise-damping effect at the air-sea barrier, compared to relatively noisier time periods of freeze up, melt, and open ocean. Changing sea ice conditions also drive presence of specific marine mammal species throughout the year (Southall et al, 2020). These nonanthropogenic sources likely contribute to sound levels within the 63 and 125 Hz TOBs, affecting the reliability for isolating sound impacts from vessel activity (Blondel et al, 2020;Southall et al, 2020).…”

Section: Sea Ice and Arctic Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Changing sea ice conditions also drive presence of specific marine mammal species throughout the year (Southall et al, 2020). These nonanthropogenic sources likely contribute to sound levels within the 63 and 125 Hz TOBs, affecting the reliability for isolating sound impacts from vessel activity (Blondel et al, 2020;Southall et al, 2020). Nevertheless, at this site we observed the highest sound levels within the 63 and 125 Hz TOBs (over 100 dB) during August and September 2016, corresponding to the times that the highest number of vessel transits was detected in the area.…”

Section: Sea Ice and Arctic Climatementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Large Vessel Activity and Low-Frequency Underwater Sound Benchmarks in United States Waters

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chronic low-frequency noise from commercial shipping is a worldwide threat to marine animals that rely on sound for essential life functions. Although the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recognizes the potential negative impacts of shipping noise in marine environments, there are currently no standard metrics to monitor and quantify shipping noise in U.S. marine waters. However, one-third octave band acoustic measurements centered at 63 and 125 Hz are used as international (European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive) indicators for underwater ambient noise levels driven by shipping activity. We apply these metrics to passive acoustic monitoring data collected over 20 months in 2016–2017 at five dispersed sites throughout the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone: Alaskan Arctic, Hawaii, Gulf of Mexico, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument (Northwest Atlantic), and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary (Northeast Pacific). To verify the relationship between shipping activity and underwater sound levels, vessel movement data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) were paired to each passive acoustic monitoring site. Daily average sound levels were consistently near to or higher than 100 dB re 1 μPa in both the 63 and 125 Hz one-third octave bands at sites with high levels of shipping traffic (Gulf of Mexico, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, and Cordell Bank). Where cargo vessels were less common (the Arctic and Hawaii), daily average sound levels were comparatively lower. Specifically, sound levels were ∼20 dB lower year-round in Hawaii and ∼10-20 dB lower in the Alaskan Arctic, depending on the season. Although these band-level measurements can only generally facilitate differentiation of sound sources, these results demonstrate that international acoustic indicators of commercial shipping can be applied to data collected in U.S. waters as a unified metric to approximate the influence of shipping as a driver of ambient noise levels, provide critical information to managers and policy makers about the status of marine environments, and to identify places and times for more detailed investigation regarding environmental impacts.

show abstract

“…The East Siberian Sea (ESS) is one of the least studied regions in the Arctic Ocean and there are many knowledge gaps regarding ambient noise around the East Siberian Shelf. Previous studies on underwater acoustic monitoring were conducted in the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, Beaufort Sea, Greenland Sea, and central Arctic Ocean (black circles in Figure 1a) (Chen et al., 2019; Geyer et al., 2016; Halliday et al., 2020; Heard et al., 2013; PAME, 2019; Southall et al., 2020; Wen et al., 2020). According to previous studies, the underwater acoustic environment in the Arctic Ocean is dependent on seasonal and geophysical conditions and is correlated with sea ice (PAME, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Geophony and Anthrophony on the Underwater Acoustic Environment in the East Siberian Sea, Arctic Ocean

Han

Joo²,

Son

et al. 2021

Geophysical Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As Arctic warming accelerates, the underwater acoustic environment in the Arctic Ocean is rapidly changing. We present the first results of passive acoustic monitoring in the marginal ice zone of the East Siberian Sea (ESS). A high sea ice concentration (SIC) and seasonal variations in ice cover make the ESS an ideal region to verify how ambient sound levels respond to natural physical processes and anthropogenic activities during summer. Our observations show that the sound level in the ESS exhibits a strong negative correlation with SIC, and the sound level in September, which was higher than that in other months, was 16 dB higher than the annual average. This increase resulted from geophony and anthrophony with the reduction in the SIC, and sound level increased by 13 dB without anthrophony. Our results indicate that ambient sound level in the Arctic Ocean may increase as climate change accelerates sea ice melting.

show abstract

Seasonal trends in underwater ambient noise near St. Lawrence Island and the Bering Strait

Cited by 17 publications

References 13 publications

Vocalizations of bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) and their influence on the soundscape of the western Canadian Arctic

Vocalizations of bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) and their influence on the soundscape of the western Canadian Arctic

Large Vessel Activity and Low-Frequency Underwater Sound Benchmarks in United States Waters

Effects of Geophony and Anthrophony on the Underwater Acoustic Environment in the East Siberian Sea, Arctic Ocean

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About