scholarly journals Singing whales generate high levels of particle motion: implications for acoustic communication and hearing?

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 20160381 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Aran Mooney ◽  
Maxwell B. Kaplan ◽  
Marc O. Lammers
Keyword(s):  
Particle Velocity ◽  
Acoustic Communication ◽  
Particle Motion ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Bone Conduction ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Energy ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Communication Signals ◽  
Ocean Noise

Acoustic signals are fundamental to animal communication, and cetaceans are often considered bioacoustic specialists. Nearly all studies of their acoustic communication focus on sound pressure measurements, overlooking the particle motion components of their communication signals. Here we characterized the levels of acoustic particle velocity (and pressure) of song produced by humpback whales. We demonstrate that whales generate acoustic fields that include significant particle velocity components that are detectable over relatively long distances sufficient to play a role in acoustic communication. We show that these signals attenuate predictably in a manner similar to pressure and that direct particle velocity measurements can provide bearings to singing whales. Whales could potentially use such information to determine the distance of signalling animals. Additionally, the vibratory nature of particle velocity may stimulate bone conduction, a hearing modality found in other low-frequency specialized mammals, offering a parsimonious mechanism of acoustic energy transduction into the massive ossicles of whale ears. With substantial concerns regarding the effects of increasing anthropogenic ocean noise and major uncertainties surrounding mysticete hearing, these results highlight both an unexplored pathway that may be available for whale acoustic communication and the need to better understand the biological role of acoustic particle motion.

Adult female-calf acoustic communication signals in migrating east Australian humpback whales

Bioacoustics ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine L. Indeck ◽  
Elisa Girola ◽  
Maëlle Torterotot ◽  
Michael J. Noad ◽  
Rebecca A. Dunlop
Keyword(s):  
Adult Female ◽  
Acoustic Communication ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Communication Signals

scholarly journals Male Humpback Whale Chorusing in Hawai‘i and Its Relationship With Whale Abundance and Density

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Kügler ◽  
Marc O. Lammers ◽  
Eden J. Zang ◽  
Adam A. Pack
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Humpback Whale ◽  
Acoustic Monitoring ◽  
Acoustic Energy ◽  
Population Trends ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Line Transect

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) with autonomous bottom-moored recorders is widely used to study cetacean occurrence, distribution and behaviors, as it is less affected by factors that limit other observation methods (e.g., vessel, land and aerial-based surveys) such as inclement weather, sighting conditions, or remoteness of study sites. During the winter months in Hawai‘i, humpback whale male song chorusing becomes the predominant contributor to the local soundscape and previous studies showed a strong seasonal pattern, suggesting a correlation with relative whale abundance. However, the relationship between chorusing levels and abundance, including non-singing whales, is still poorly understood. To investigate how accurately acoustic monitoring of singing humpback whales tracks their abundance, and therefore is a viable tool for studying whale ecology and population trends, we collected long-term PAM data from three bottom-moored Ecological Acoustic Recorders off west Maui, Hawaii during the winter and spring months of 2016–2021. We calculated daily medians of root-mean-square sound pressure levels (RMS SPL) of the low frequency acoustic energy (0–1.5 kHz) as a measure of cumulative chorusing intensity. In addition, between December and April we conducted a total of 26 vessel-based line-transect surveys during the 2018/19 through 2020/21 seasons and weekly visual surveys (n = 74) from a land-based station between 2016 and 2020, in which the location of sighted whale pods was determined with a theodolite. Combining the visual and acoustic data, we found a strong positive second-order polynomial correlation between SPLs and abundance (land: 0.72 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.75, vessel: 0.81 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.85 for three different PAM locations; Generalized Linear Model: pland ≪ 0.001, pvessel ≪ 0.001) that was independent from recording location (pland = 0.23, pvessel = 0.9880). Our findings demonstrate that PAM is a relatively low-cost, robust complement and alternative for studying and monitoring humpback whales in their breeding grounds that is able to capture small-scale fluctuations during the season and can inform managers about population trends in a timely manner. It also has the potential to be adapted for use in other regions that have previously presented challenges due to their remoteness or other limitations for conducting traditional surveys.

Mondini-like malformation mimicking otosclerosis and superior semicircular canal dehiscence

2006 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. 419-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Karlberg ◽  
M Annertz ◽  
M Magnusson
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Semicircular Canal ◽  
Bone Conduction ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Energy ◽  
Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials ◽  
Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence ◽  
Superior Semicircular Canal ◽  
Temporal Bones ◽  
Canal Dehiscence

In 2003, it was reported that superior semicircular canal dehiscence can mimic otosclerosis because of low-frequency bone conduction hearing gain and dissipation of air-conducted acoustic energy through the dehiscence. We report the case of a 17-year-old girl with left-sided combined hearing loss thought to be due to otosclerosis. Bone conduction thresholds were −10 dB at 250 and 500 Hz and she had a 40 dB air–bone gap at 250 Hz. When a tuning fork was placed at her ankle she heard it in her left ear. Acoustic reflexes and vestibular evoked myogenic potentials could be elicited bilaterally. Imaging of the temporal bones showed no otosclerosis, superior semicircular canal dehiscence or large vestibular aqueduct, but a left-sided, Mondini-like dysplasia of the cochlea with a modiolar deficiency could be seen. Mondini-like cochlear dysplasia should be added to the causes of inner-ear conductive hearing loss.

scholarly journals Fluctuations in Hawaii’s humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae population inferred from male song chorusing off Maui

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 421-434
Author(s):  
A Kügler ◽  
MO Lammers ◽  
EJ Zang ◽  
MB Kaplan ◽  
TA Mooney
Keyword(s):  
North Pacific ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Humpback Whale ◽  
Megaptera Novaeangliae ◽  
Acoustic Energy ◽  
Humpback Whales ◽  
Underwater Sound ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The North Pacific

Approximately half of the North Pacific humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae stock visits the shallow waters of the main Hawaiian Islands seasonally. Within this breeding area, mature males produce an elaborate acoustic display known as song, which becomes the dominant source of ambient underwater sound between December and April. Following reports of unusually low whale numbers that began in 2015/16, we examined song chorusing recorded through long-term passive acoustic monitoring at 6 sites off Maui as a proxy for relative whale abundance between 2014 and 2019. Daily root-mean-square sound pressure levels (RMS SPLs) were calculated to compare variations in low-frequency acoustic energy (0-1.5 kHz). After 2014/15, the overall RMS SPLs decreased between 5.6 and 9.7 dB re 1 µPa2 during the peak of whale season (February and March), reducing ambient acoustic energy from chorusing by over 50%. This change in song levels co-occurred with a broad-scale oceanic heat wave in the northeast Pacific termed the ‘Blob,’ a major El Niño event in the North Pacific, and a warming period in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation cycle. Although it remains unclear whether our observations reflect a decrease in population size, a change in migration patterns, a shift in distribution to other areas, a change in the behavior of males, or some combination of these, our results indicate that continued monitoring and further studies of humpback whales throughout the North Pacific are warranted to better understand the fluctuations occurring in this recently recovered population and other populations that continue to be endangered or threatened.

The Occlusion Effect in Unilateral Functional Hearing Loss

1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-40
Author(s):  
Gary Thompson ◽  
Marie Denman
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Bone Conduction ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
The Right ◽  
Occlusion Effect

Bone-conduction tests were administered to subjects who feigned a hearing loss in the right ear. The tests were conducted under two conditions: With and without occlusion of the non-test ear. It was anticipated that the occlusion effect, a well-known audiological principle, would operate to draw low frequency bone-conducted signals to the occluded side in a predictable manner. Results supported this expectation and are discussed in terms of their clinical implications.

Collective oscillations in bubble clouds

2011 ◽  
Vol 680 ◽  
pp. 114-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZORANA ZERAVCIC ◽  
DETLEF LOHSE ◽  
WIM VAN SAARLOOS
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Response ◽  
Acoustic Field ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Energy ◽  
Viscous Damping ◽  
Edge States ◽  
Bubble Cloud ◽  
Collective Oscillations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Bubble Oscillations

In this paper the collective oscillations of a bubble cloud in an acoustic field are theoretically analysed with concepts and techniques of condensed matter physics. More specifically, we will calculate the eigenmodes and their excitabilities, eigenfrequencies, densities of states, responses, absorption and participation ratios to better understand the collective dynamics of coupled bubbles and address the question of possible localization of acoustic energy in the bubble cloud. The radial oscillations of the individual bubbles in the acoustic field are described by coupled linearized Rayleigh–Plesset equations. We explore the effects of viscous damping, distance between bubbles, polydispersity, geometric disorder, size of the bubbles and size of the cloud. For large enough clusters, the collective response is often very different from that of a typical mode, as the frequency response of each mode is sufficiently wide that many modes are excited when the cloud is driven by ultrasound. The reason is the strong effect of viscosity on the collective mode response, which is surprising, as viscous damping effects are small for single-bubble oscillations in water. Localization of acoustic energy is only found in the case of substantial bubble size polydispersity or geometric disorder. The lack of localization for a weak disorder is traced back to the long-range 1/r interaction potential between the individual bubbles. The results of the present paper are connected to recent experimental observations of collective bubble oscillations in a two-dimensional bubble cloud, where pronounced edge states and a pronounced low-frequency response had been observed, both consistent with the present theoretical findings. Finally, an outlook to future possible experiments is given.

Preparing for the unpredictable: adaptive feedback enhances the response to unexpected communication signals

2012 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 1241-1246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Marsat ◽  
Leonard Maler
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Excitatory Input ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Communication Signals ◽  
First Order ◽  
Communication Signal ◽  
Apical Dendrites ◽  
Spike Bursts

To interact with the environment efficiently, the nervous system must generate expectations about redundant sensory signals and detect unexpected ones. Neural circuits can, for example, compare a prediction of the sensory signal that was generated by the nervous system with the incoming sensory input, to generate a response selective to novel stimuli. In the first-order electrosensory neurons of a gymnotiform electric fish, a negative image of low-frequency redundant communication signals is subtracted from the neural response via feedback, allowing unpredictable signals to be extracted. Here we show that the cancelling feedback not only suppresses the predictable signal but also actively enhances the response to the unpredictable communication signal. A transient mismatch between the predictive feedback and incoming sensory input causes both to be positive: the soma is suddenly depolarized by the unpredictable input, whereas the neuron's apical dendrites remain depolarized by the lagging cancelling feedback. The apical dendrites allow the backpropagation of somatic spikes. We show that backpropagation is enhanced when the dendrites are depolarized, causing the unpredictable excitatory input to evoke spike bursts. As a consequence, the feedback driven by a predictable low-frequency signal not only suppresses the response to a redundant stimulus but also induces a bursting response triggered by unpredictable communication signals.

An efficient low-frequency acoustic energy harvester

2017 ◽  
Vol 264 ◽  
pp. 84-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Yuan ◽  
Ziping Cao ◽  
Jun Luo ◽  
Jinya Zhang ◽  
Cheng Chang
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Acoustic Energy

Down‐slope enhancement models for low‐frequency ocean noise and propagation

1978 ◽  
Vol 64 (S1) ◽  
pp. S46-S46
Author(s):  
J. Northrop ◽  
R. A. Wagstaff
Keyword(s):  
Low Frequency ◽  
Ocean Noise

Mate call as reward: Acoustic communication signals can acquire positive reinforcing values during adulthood in female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata).

2016 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra M. Hernandez ◽  
Emilie C. Perez ◽  
Hervé Mulard ◽  
Nicolas Mathevon ◽  
Clémentine Vignal
Keyword(s):  
Acoustic Communication ◽  
Taeniopygia Guttata ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Communication Signals
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