title: Ecological Insights from Pelagic Habitats Acquired Using Active Acoustic Techniques.
abstract: Marine pelagic ecosystems present fascinating opportunities for ecological investigation but pose important methodological challenges for sampling. Active acoustic techniques involve producing sound and receiving signals from organisms and other water column sources, offering the benefit of high spatial and temporal resolution and, via integration into different platforms, the ability to make measurements spanning a range of spatial and temporal scales. As a consequence, a variety of questions concerning the ecology of pelagic systems lend themselves to active acoustics, ranging from organism-level investigations and physiological responses to the environment to ecosystem-level studies and climate. As technologies and data analysis methods have matured, the use of acoustics in ecological studies has grown rapidly. We explore the continued role of active acoustics in addressing questions concerning life in the ocean, highlight creative applications to key ecological themes ranging from physiology and behavior to biogeography and climate, and discuss emerging avenues where acoustics can help determine how pelagic ecosystems function.
authors.affiliation: College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97333; email: kbenoit@coas.oregonstate.edu.
authors.forename: Kelly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Benoit-Bird
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543; email: glawson@whoi.edu.
authors.forename: Gareth L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Lawson
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D017753:Ecosystem; D009791:Oceanography / Q000379:methods*; D014828:Vocalization, Animal
keywords: acoustical oceanography; echo sounder; ecology; fisheries acoustics; ocean; sonar