An autonomous recording unit (ARU) is a self-contained audio recording device that is deployed in marine or terrestrial environments for bioacoustical monitoring. The unit is used in both marine and terrestrial environments to track the behavior of animals and monitor their ecosystems. On a terrestrial level, the ARU can detect noises coming from bird habitats and determine relative emotions that each bird conveys along with the population of the birds and the relative vulnerability of the ecosystem. The ARU can also be used to understand noises made by marine life to see how the animals' communication affects the operation of their ecosystem. When underwater, the ARU can track the sound that human made machines make and see the effect those sounds have on marine life ecosystems. Up to 44 work days can be saved through the utilization of ARU's, along with their ability to discover more species. [1] [2] [3] [4]
A split frequency application is used to counter the wide bandwidths that create issues. This split allows for the sampling of continuous time signals along an inclusion based bandwidth with a small number of hertz to hundreds of kilo-Hertz (kHz). One band is used for lower frequencies, below 30 kHz, while the other is used for higher frequencies, above 100 kHz. The perceived signals are then put into the hard drive for storage. [1]
The SDA14 platform allows for signal processing in real time with a 24-bits Wideband that covers 4 analog signals. To get real time data analysis, a digital signal processor (DSP) is used with three GFlops. The data can then be distributed to different media storages alongside a programmable OEM. The system itself is autonomous with 8 to 26 volt digital converter power sources that are blended through Ethernet and serial port interfaces. The Ethernet port allows for acoustic tests while in the terrain along with extra gathered data. Meanwhile, the serial port deals with the sending back of data in real time and to send master control of the system back when submerged underwater. The channel takes up around 1.8 watts of power when recording. [1]
Different animals experience different sensitivities to frequencies that affect their behavior. Because of this there are multiple cetacean detection algorithms.
Highly sensitive animals like harbor porpoise generate primary signals between 115 and 145 kilohertz, which requires a large sample rate (480 kilo-samples per second) to capture strong bandwidth recordings.
Known as a click detection process, the cetacean detector algorithm was originally implemented in analog electronics to test different dolphins and porpoises in containment and in freedom. The center frequency is 130 kilohertz with a 30 kilohertz bandwidth. The pulse's envelope is tracked through a sequence of short clicks. The lower bandwidths (less than 20 kilohertz) are digitized and the frequencies shifted to be low enough for the human ear. This helps humans understand the acoustic behavior. In between clicks, acoustic behavior can be observed. Behavioral interpolation of the mammals can be inferred between inter-click periods. The system has implemented the SDA14 platform alongside DSP to get full bandwidth waveforms that holds large advantages cetacean examination.
ARU's offer large advancements in monitoring underwater acoustics due to strong signal processing and data capturing. The quality of noise is somewhat limited because of the digital and analog systems that are implemented. At the moment this system works best with porpoises, but it is rather versatile and can still be applied to other mammals such as dolphins and whales. [1]
The three main functions of ARU's include monitoring movement, biology, and animal communication in an ecosystem. With relatively frequent check-ups the ARU's can monitor at all times and measure, for instance, the owls in spring and amphibians in a later season. They can determine when certain animals live in an ecosystem and when other animals take their place.
Future bioacoustic monitoring could move into monitoring soundscapes and mapping habitats. Data processing can gather sounds from different sources for habitat monitoring to find soundscape changes. The physical qualities of sound can now identify the acoustic animal ecosystems as well. The detection of migrations, for example, can be found from this. The next step is for the acoustic indices to solve for the species that is at play for given sounds.
Recording animal vocals is useful with an ARU as they are not encroaching and are able to retain information on animal movement and habitat patterns. Localization within a community can gather data on the density of animals as well as their return rates. Localization specializes in tracking smaller, more elusive animals.
ARU's ability to detect vocalizations helps researchers to study the effects of vocal behavior on local ecosystems. Newer ARU's that can be attached to animals are able to decipher intentional noises from non intentional noises, allowing for less outlier data. [3]
Noise pollution, or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise or sound with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of which are harmful to a degree. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport and propagation systems. Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas. Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation, lawn care maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions and people.
Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is a biological active sonar used by several animal groups, both in the air and underwater. Echolocating animals emit calls and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects. Echolocation is used for navigation, foraging, and hunting prey.
Acoustical engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with sound and vibration. It includes the application of acoustics, the science of sound and vibration, in technology. Acoustical engineers are typically concerned with the design, analysis and control of sound.
The harbour porpoise is one of eight extant species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest species of cetacean. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar porpoise to whale watchers. This porpoise often ventures up rivers, and has been seen hundreds of kilometres from the sea. The harbour porpoise may be polytypic, with geographically distinct populations representing distinct races: P. p. phocoena in the North Atlantic and West Africa, P. p. relicta in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, an unnamed population in the northwestern Pacific and P. p. vomerina in the northeastern Pacific.
Bioacoustics is a cross-disciplinary science that combines biology and acoustics. Usually it refers to the investigation of sound production, dispersion and reception in animals. This involves neurophysiological and anatomical basis of sound production and detection, and relation of acoustic signals to the medium they disperse through. The findings provide clues about the evolution of acoustic mechanisms, and from that, the evolution of animals that employ them.
Whales use a variety of sounds for communication and sensation. The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans to another. Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, are much more dependent on sound than land mammals due to the limited effectiveness of other senses in water. Sight is less effective for marine mammals because of the particulate way in which the ocean scatters light. Smell is also limited, as molecules diffuse more slowly in water than in air, which makes smelling less effective. However, the speed of sound is roughly four times greater in water than in the atmosphere at sea level. As sea mammals are so dependent on hearing to communicate and feed, environmentalists and cetologists are concerned that they are being harmed by the increased ambient noise in the world's oceans caused by ships, sonar and marine seismic surveys.
A bat detector is a device used to detect the presence of bats by converting their echolocation ultrasound signals, as they are emitted by the bats, to audible frequencies, usually about 120 Hz to 15 kHz. There are other types of detectors which record bat calls so that they can be analysed afterward, but these are more commonly referred to by their particular function.
Cetacean bycatch is the accidental capture of non-target cetacean species such as dolphins, porpoises, and whales by fisheries. Bycatch can be caused by entanglement in fishing nets and lines, or direct capture by hooks or in trawl nets.
Acoustic ecology, sometimes called ecoacoustics or soundscape studies, is a discipline studying the relationship, mediated through sound, between human beings and their environment. Acoustic ecology studies started in the late 1960s with R. Murray Schafer a musician, composer and former professor of communication studies at Simon Fraser University with the help of his team there as part of the World Soundscape Project. The original WSP team included Barry Truax and Hildegard Westerkamp, Bruce Davies and Peter Huse, among others. The first study produced by the WSP was titled The Vancouver Soundscape. This innovative study raised the interest of researchers and artists worldwide, creating enormous growth in the field of acoustic ecology. In 1993, the members of the by now large and active international acoustic ecology community formed the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.
Whitlow W. L. Au was a leading expert in bioacoustics specializing in biosonar of odontocetes. He is author of the widely known book The Sonar of Dolphins (1993) and, with Mardi Hastings, Principles of Marine Bioacoustics (2008). Au was honored as a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 1990 and awarded the ASA's first Silver Medal in Animal Bioacoustics in 1998. He was graduate advisor to MacArthur Fellow Kelly Benoit-Bird, who credits Au for discovering how sophisticated dolphin sonar is, developing dolphin-inspired machine sonars to separate different species of fish with the goal of protecting sensitive species, and for making numerous contributions to the description of Humpback whale song, which helped protect these whales from ship noise and ship traffic.
Passive acoustics is the action of listening for sounds, often at specific frequencies or for purposes of specific analyses. It is often used for passive acoustic monitoring(PAM), the act of recording animal and environmental sounds through the use of acoustic sensors for the purpose of tracking animals and answering other ecological questions.
Acoustic tags are small sound-emitting devices that allow the detection and/or remote tracking of organisms in aquatic ecosystems. Acoustic tags are commonly used to monitor the behavior of fish. Studies can be conducted in lakes, rivers, tributaries, estuaries or at sea. Acoustic tag technology allows researchers to obtain locational data of tagged fish: depending on tag and receiver array configurations, researchers can receive simple presence/absence data, 2D positional data, or even 3D fish tracks in real-time with sub-meter resolutions.
Underwater acoustics is the study of the propagation of sound in water and the interaction of the mechanical waves that constitute sound with the water, its contents and its boundaries. The water may be in the ocean, a lake, a river or a tank. Typical frequencies associated with underwater acoustics are between 10 Hz and 1 MHz. The propagation of sound in the ocean at frequencies lower than 10 Hz is usually not possible without penetrating deep into the seabed, whereas frequencies above 1 MHz are rarely used because they are absorbed very quickly.
The Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI) is a research and educational centre dedicated to the understanding and conservation of cetaceans and the marine environment in which they live. The Institute's BDRI center was founded by the biologist Bruno Díaz López in Sardinia, Italy in 2005. In 2014, the BDRI opened a new facility in Galicia, Spain.
The interactions between marine mammals and sonar have been a subject of debate since the invention of the technology.
Wildlife Acoustics, Inc. is a privately held United States company based in Maynard, Massachusetts. The company provides bioacoustics monitoring technology for scientists, researchers, and government agencies internationally. The company was founded by Ian Agranat in 2003. The company originally developed a product called the Song Sleuth, a device that would attempt to automatically identify birds from their songs in real time in the field. As this concept proved too expensive for the consumer market, the underlying technology was used to develop autonomous acoustic and ultrasonic recorders and analysis software for research scientists and other professional ecologists.
Soundscape ecology is the study of the acoustic relationships between living organisms, human and other, and their environment, whether the organisms are marine or terrestrial. First appearing in the Handbook for Acoustic Ecology edited by Barry Truax, in 1978, the term has occasionally been used, sometimes interchangeably, with the term acoustic ecology. Soundscape ecologists also study the relationships between the three basic sources of sound that comprise the soundscape: those generated by organisms are referred to as the biophony; those from non-biological natural categories are classified as the geophony, and those produced by humans, the anthropophony.
Acoustic harassment and acoustic deterrents are technologies used to keep animals and in some cases humans away from an area. Applications of the technology are used to keep marine mammals away from aquaculture facilities and to keep birds away from certain areas. The devices have also been employed to keep marine mammals away from fishing nets. The devices are known as acoustic harassment devices (AHDs) and acoustic deterrent devices, which are smaller AHDs or intended as an awareness tool to warn species to the presence of danger rather than as a tool of harassment at a much louder level.
JASCO Applied Sciences provides scientific consulting services and equipment related to underwater acoustics. JASCO operates from 7 international locations and provides services to the oil and gas, marine construction, energy, renewable energy, fisheries, maritime transport and defence sectors. The head office is located in Halifax, NS Canada. JASCO employs acousticians, bioacousticians, physicists, marine mammal scientists, engineers, technologists, and project managers.
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