Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales
Time averaged narrow-band noise near 27 Hz produced by vocalizations of many distant Antarctic blue whales intensifies seasonally from early February to late October in the ocean off Australia’s South West. Spectral characteristics of long term patterns in this noise band were analyzed using ambient...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Acoustical Soceity of America
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27598 |
| _version_ | 1848752308386529280 |
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| author | Gavrilov, Alexander McCauley, Robert Gedamke, J. |
| author_facet | Gavrilov, Alexander McCauley, Robert Gedamke, J. |
| author_sort | Gavrilov, Alexander |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Time averaged narrow-band noise near 27 Hz produced by vocalizations of many distant Antarctic blue whales intensifies seasonally from early February to late October in the ocean off Australia’s South West. Spectral characteristics of long term patterns in this noise band were analyzed using ambient noise data collected at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty hydroacoustic station off Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia over 2002–2010. Within 7 day averaged noise spectra derived from 4096-point FFT (~0.06 Hz frequency resolution), the −3-dB width of the spectral peak from the upper tone of Antarctic blue whale vocalization was about 0.5 Hz. The spectral frequency peak of this tonal call was regularly but not gradually decreasing over the 9 years of observation from ~27.7 Hz in 2002 to ~26.6 Hz in 2010. The average frequency peak steadily decreased at a greater rate within a season at 0.4–0.5 Hz/season but then in the next year recovered to approximately the mean value of the previous season. A regression analysis showed that the interannual decrease rate of the peak frequency of the upper tonal call was 0.135 ± 0.003 Hz/year over 2002–2010 (R 2 ≈ 0.99). Possible causes of such a decline in the whale vocalization frequency are considered. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:06:33Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-27598 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:06:33Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Acoustical Soceity of America |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-275982017-09-13T15:09:37Z Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales Gavrilov, Alexander McCauley, Robert Gedamke, J. noise band vocalizations blue whales Time averaged narrow-band noise near 27 Hz produced by vocalizations of many distant Antarctic blue whales intensifies seasonally from early February to late October in the ocean off Australia’s South West. Spectral characteristics of long term patterns in this noise band were analyzed using ambient noise data collected at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty hydroacoustic station off Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia over 2002–2010. Within 7 day averaged noise spectra derived from 4096-point FFT (~0.06 Hz frequency resolution), the −3-dB width of the spectral peak from the upper tone of Antarctic blue whale vocalization was about 0.5 Hz. The spectral frequency peak of this tonal call was regularly but not gradually decreasing over the 9 years of observation from ~27.7 Hz in 2002 to ~26.6 Hz in 2010. The average frequency peak steadily decreased at a greater rate within a season at 0.4–0.5 Hz/season but then in the next year recovered to approximately the mean value of the previous season. A regression analysis showed that the interannual decrease rate of the peak frequency of the upper tonal call was 0.135 ± 0.003 Hz/year over 2002–2010 (R 2 ≈ 0.99). Possible causes of such a decline in the whale vocalization frequency are considered. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27598 10.1121/1.4707425 Acoustical Soceity of America fulltext |
| spellingShingle | noise band vocalizations blue whales Gavrilov, Alexander McCauley, Robert Gedamke, J. Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales |
| title | Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales |
| title_full | Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales |
| title_fullStr | Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales |
| title_full_unstemmed | Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales |
| title_short | Steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of Antarctic blue whales |
| title_sort | steady inter and intra-annual decrease in the vocalization frequency of antarctic blue whales |
| topic | noise band vocalizations blue whales |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27598 |