title: Are Masking-Based Models of Risk Useful?
abstract: As our understanding of directly observable effects from anthropogenic sound exposure has improved, concern about "unobservable" effects such as stress and masking have received greater attention. Equal energy models of masking such as power spectrum models have the appeal of simplicity, but do they offer biologically realistic assessments of the risk of masking? Data relevant to masking such as critical ratios, critical bandwidths, temporal resolution, and directional resolution along with what is known about general mammalian antimasking mechanisms all argue for a much more complicated view of masking when making decisions about the risk of masking inherent in a given anthropogenic sound exposure scenario.
authors.affiliation: Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (EXWC) EV, US Navy, Port Hueneme, CA, 93043, USA. bob.gisiner@iagc.org.|International Association of Geophysical Contractors, 1225 North Loop West, Suite 220, Houston, TX, 77008, USA. bob.gisiner@iagc.org.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Gisiner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Hearing; Marine mammal; Masking; Regulation; Risk model