St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Apparent source levels and active communication space of whistles of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in the Pearl River Estuary and Beibu Gulf, China

Thumbnail
View/Open
Rendell_2016_Indo_PacificHumpbackDolphins_PeerJ_CC.pdf (37.34Mb)
Date
15/02/2016
Author
Wang, Zhi-Tao
Au, Whitlow W. L.
Rendell, Luke
Wang, Ke-Xiong
Wu, Hai-Ping
Wu, Yu-Ping
Liu, Jian-Chang
Duan, Guo-Qin
Cao, Han-Jiang
Wang, Ding
Keywords
Active communication space
Pearl River Estuary
Sound propagation model
Whistles
Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins
Hydrophone arrays
Beibu Gulf
Apparent source level
Sousa chinensis
QH301 Biology
QL Zoology
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Background . Knowledge of species-specific vocalization characteristics and their associated active communication space, the effective range over which a communication signal can be detected by a conspecific, is critical for understanding the impacts of underwater acoustic pollution, as well as other threats. Methods. We used a two-dimensional cross-shaped hydrophone array system to record the whistles of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in shallow-water environments of the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) and Beibu Gulf (BG), China. Using hyperbolic position fixing, which exploits time differences of arrival of a signal between pairs of hydrophone receivers, we obtained source location estimates for whistles with good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR  ≥ 10 dB) and not polluted by other sounds and back-calculated their apparent source levels (ASL). Combining with the masking levels (including simultaneous noise levels, masking tonal threshold, and the Sousa auditory threshold) and the custom made site-specific sound propagation models, we further estimated their active communication space (ACS). Results. Humpback dolphins produced whistles with average root-mean-square ASL of 138.5 ± 6.8 (mean ± standard deviation) and 137.2 ± 7.0 dB re 1 µPa in PRE (N = 33) and BG (N = 209), respectively. We found statistically significant differences in ASLs among different whistle contour types. The mean and maximum ACS of whistles were estimated to be 14.7 ± 2.6 (median ± quartile deviation) and 17.1 ± 3.5 m in PRE, and 34.2 ± 9.5 and 43.5 ±12.2 m in BG. Using just the auditory threshold as the masking level produced the mean and maximum ACSat of 24.3 ± 4.8 and 35.7 ± 4.6 m for PRE, and 60.7 ± 18.1 and 74.3 ± 25.3 m for BG. The small ACSs were due to the high ambient noise level. Significant differences in ACSs were also observed among different whistle contour types. Discussion. Besides shedding some light for evaluating appropriate noise exposure levels and information for the regulation of underwater acoustic pollution, these baseline data can also be used for aiding the passive acoustic monitoring of dolphin populations, defining the boundaries of separate groups in a more biologically meaningful way during field surveys, and guiding the appropriate approach distance for local dolphin-watching boats and research boat during focal group following.
Citation
Wang , Z-T , Au , W W L , Rendell , L , Wang , K-X , Wu , H-P , Wu , Y-P , Liu , J-C , Duan , G-Q , Cao , H-J & Wang , D 2016 , ' Apparent source levels and active communication space of whistles of free-ranging Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins ( Sousa chinensis ) in the Pearl River Estuary and Beibu Gulf, China ' , PeerJ , vol. 4 , pp. 1-38 . https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1695
Publication
PeerJ
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1695
ISSN
2167-8359
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2016 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0.
Description
Grants for this study was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) of China (Grant No.31070347), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2011BAG07B05-3), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KSCX2-EW-Z-4) and the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of the Ministry of Agriculture of China (Grant No. 201203086) to DW, the State Oceanic Administration of China (Grant No. 201105011-3) and NNSF of China (Grant No. 31170501) to KXW and the China Scholarship Council (Grant No. (2014)3026) to ZTW.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8449

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter