Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability

Human waterborne activities emit noise into the marine environment. This is of particular concern with regard to the potential impact on marine fauna such as cetaceans due to their acoustic specialisations. The Swan-Canning River system in Western Australia is home to a resident community of Indo-Pa...

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Main Authors:	Marley, Sarah Anne, Erbe, Christine, Salgado Kent, Chandra
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Australian Acoustical Society 2016
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/15915

id	curtin-20.500.11937-15915
recordtype	eprints
spelling	curtin-20.500.11937-159152017-09-13T14:08:01Z Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability Marley, Sarah Anne Erbe, Christine Salgado Kent, Chandra Human waterborne activities emit noise into the marine environment. This is of particular concern with regard to the potential impact on marine fauna such as cetaceans due to their acoustic specialisations. The Swan-Canning River system in Western Australia is home to a resident community of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), but is also a site regularly used for various human activities. As underwater noise levels increasingly become considered as an indicator of habitat quality, there is a need to characterise the soundscapes of such areas with regard to their cetacean fauna. This study aimed to provide a description of a site within the river system known as “The Narrows”. Acoustic data were collected over a six-week period with an autonomous underwater acoustic recorder. These data were analysed using a combination of weekly spectrograms, power spectral density percentile plots, 1/3 octave band levels, and generalised estimating equations to identify prominent soundscape contributors and investigate temporal patterns in their occurrence. The soundscape was found to be strongly influenced by wind, snapping shrimp, and vessel traffic, with the sounds of bridge traffic, waves, fish, machinery, dolphins, and precipitation also contributing to the acoustic environment. Furthermore, three of these sound sources (boats, waves, and fish) were found to vary at a range of temporal scales. These results take a vital step in characterising the acoustic habitat of this river system, highlighting the need to consider temporal patterns when assessing the composition of underwater soundscapes. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/15915 10.1007/s40857-015-0038-z Australian Acoustical Society restricted
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Curtin University Malaysia
building	Curtin Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
description	Human waterborne activities emit noise into the marine environment. This is of particular concern with regard to the potential impact on marine fauna such as cetaceans due to their acoustic specialisations. The Swan-Canning River system in Western Australia is home to a resident community of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus), but is also a site regularly used for various human activities. As underwater noise levels increasingly become considered as an indicator of habitat quality, there is a need to characterise the soundscapes of such areas with regard to their cetacean fauna. This study aimed to provide a description of a site within the river system known as “The Narrows”. Acoustic data were collected over a six-week period with an autonomous underwater acoustic recorder. These data were analysed using a combination of weekly spectrograms, power spectral density percentile plots, 1/3 octave band levels, and generalised estimating equations to identify prominent soundscape contributors and investigate temporal patterns in their occurrence. The soundscape was found to be strongly influenced by wind, snapping shrimp, and vessel traffic, with the sounds of bridge traffic, waves, fish, machinery, dolphins, and precipitation also contributing to the acoustic environment. Furthermore, three of these sound sources (boats, waves, and fish) were found to vary at a range of temporal scales. These results take a vital step in characterising the acoustic habitat of this river system, highlighting the need to consider temporal patterns when assessing the composition of underwater soundscapes.
format	Journal Article
author	Marley, Sarah Anne Erbe, Christine Salgado Kent, Chandra
spellingShingle	Marley, Sarah Anne Erbe, Christine Salgado Kent, Chandra Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
author_facet	Marley, Sarah Anne Erbe, Christine Salgado Kent, Chandra
author_sort	Marley, Sarah Anne
title	Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
title_short	Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
title_full	Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
title_fullStr	Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
title_full_unstemmed	Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
title_sort	underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability
publisher	Australian Acoustical Society
publishDate	2016
url	http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/15915
first_indexed	2018-09-06T19:30:59Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T19:30:59Z
_version_	1610887735545954304

Underwater sound in an urban estuarine river: Sound sources, soundscape contribution, and temporal variability

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