Temporal patterns in the soundscape of the shallow waters of a Mediterranean marine protected area.
Sci Rep
; 6: 34230, 2016 Sep 28.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27677956
ABSTRACT
The study of marine soundscapes is an emerging field of research that contributes important information about biological compositions and environmental conditions. The seasonal and circadian soundscape trends of a marine protected area (MPA) in the Mediterranean Sea have been studied for one year using an autonomous acoustic recorder. Frequencies less than 1 kHz are dominated by noise generated by waves and are louder during the winter; conversely, higher frequencies (4-96 kHz) are dominated by snapping shrimp, which increase their acoustic activity at night during the summer. Fish choruses, below 2 kHz, characterize the soundscape at sunset during the summer. Because there are 13 vessel passages per hour on average, causing acoustic interference with fish choruses 46% of the time, this MPA cannot be considered to be protected from noise. On the basis of the high seasonal variability of the soundscape components, this study proposes a one-year acoustic monitoring protocol using the soundscape methodology approach and discusses the concept of MPA size.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Sci Rep
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italy