title: Development of a Model to Assess Masking Potential for Marine Mammals by the Use of Air Guns in Antarctic Waters.
abstract: We estimated the long-range effects of air gun array noise on marine mammal communication ranges in the Southern Ocean. Air gun impulses are subject to significant distortion during propagation, potentially resulting in a quasi-continuous sound. Propagation modeling to estimate the received waveform was conducted. A leaky integrator was used as a hearing model to assess communication masking in three species due to intermittent/continuous air gun sounds. Air gun noise is most probably changing from impulse to continuous noise between 1,000 and 2,000 km from the source, leading to a reduced communication range for, e.g., blue and fin whales up to 2,000 km from the source.
authors.affiliation: DW-ShipConsult GmbH, 24223, Schwentinental, Germany. wittekind@dw-sc.de.
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wittekind
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark. jat@dmu.dk.
authors.forename: Jakob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tougaard
authors.affiliation: Freelance Biologist, 72379, Hechingen-Sickingen, Germany. peter.stilz@uni-tuebingen.de.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stilz
authors.affiliation: Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 25761, Büsum, Germany. michael.daehne@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dähne
authors.affiliation: Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA. cwc2@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Lucke Biological Consulting (LBC), 1791 TP, Den Berg, Netherlands. klaus.lucke@wur.nl.|Department of Ecosystems, Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies (IMARES), Wageningen UR, 1790 AD, Den Burg, Netherlands. klaus.lucke@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lucke
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), 2509 JG, Hague, Netherlands. sander.vonbendabeckmann@tno.nl.
authors.forename: Sander
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: von Benda-Beckmann
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), 2509 JG, Hague, Netherlands. michael.ainslie@tno.nl.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ainslie
authors.affiliation: Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, 25761, Büsum, Germany. ursula.siebert@tiho-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Siebert
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D050617:Fin Whale / Q000502:physiology; D008322:Mammals / Q000502:physiology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: Mysticetes; Pinnipeds; Propagation modeling; Seismic