Investor Presentaiton
WARNER COLLEGE OF
Natural Resources
Colorado State University
Park
National
Natural Sou
Sounds
Service
Night Skies
NATIONAL
PARK
SERVICE
ווי
Discovering patterns of biological and anthropogenic activity at National Park of American Samoa
using underwater acoustical monitoring
Abigail L Crowder¹, Jacob R Job 1,3, Timothy Clark², Megan F Mckenna³
1 Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
2 National Park Service, National Park of American Samoa, Pago Pago, AS 96799
3 National Park Service, Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, Fort Collins, CO 80525
Colorado
State
University
Objectives
What are the acoustical conditions of the National Park of American
Samoa's marine environment?
• What are the sources of biological sounds?
•
What are the sources of human-associated noise?
•
What are the patterns of presence of biological sounds and
human-associated noise?
Introduction
The acoustical environment of a place can tell us a lot about the health
of an ecosystem.
Acoustical monitoring is a non-invasive and effective method of
characterizing both terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Acoustical monitoring can provide insight into the presence and
occurrence of species living or migrating through a region, ecological
processes, and levels of human activity.
Long-term acoustical monitoring can provide important insight into
changes to ecosystems, as well as provide guidance for management
decisions.
National Park of American Samoa is part of the first large-scale effort to
monitor long-term trends of underwater acoustical environments
across U.S. waters.
Methods
0
Number of Calls
50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Results
2.40-
2.30-
Daily Fish Calling
2.20-
2.10-
2.00-
1.90-
1.80-
1.70-
1.60-
1.50-
1.40-
1.30-
1.20-
1.10-
1.00-
0.90-
0.80-
0.70-
0.60-
0.50-
0.40-
0.30-
0.20-
0.00
kHz,
"h:m:s 1:18:18
1:18:25
1:18:30
1:18:35
1:18:40
1:18:45
1:18:50
1:18:55
1:19:00
1:19:05
1:19:10
0 2 4
6
8
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Hour
Figure 3: Fish vocalizations (n=1696) peak
during the early morning and dusk, with a
lull during the middle of the day.
1200
Number of Calls
200
400
600
800
1000
0
Daily Whale Calling
0 2
4
6
8
10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Hour
Figure 4: Whale vocalizations (n=6644)
don't exhibit any particular pattern of
presence throughout the day.
009
Figure 7: Spectrogram depicting the presence of fish calls as indicated by
the red arrows. The remaining yellow vertical lines are the snapping
sounds made by snapping shrimp.
2.40-
2.30-
2.20-
2.10-
2.00-
1.90-
1.80-
1.70-
1.60-
1.50-
1.40-
1.30-
1.20-
1.10-
1.00-
0.90-
0.80-
0.70-
0.60-
0.50-
0.40-
0.30-
0.20-
0.00
kHz,
"h:m:s 3:01:27.876
3:01:35
3:01:40
3:01:45
3:01:50
3:01:55
3:02:00
3:02:05
3:02:10
3:02:15
3:02:20
Figure 8: Spectrogram depicting the presence of whale vocalizations
recorded in October 2015. During this month, we detected a total of 6644
whale vocalizations, but none in the other months analyzed, clearly
indicating an active time period for whales in the park..
2.40-
2.30-
Daily Non-Natural Detections
2.20-
2.10-
2.00-
1.90-
1.80-
1.70-
1.60-
1.50-
1.40-
1.30
1.20-
1.10-
Figure 1: Park staff deployed an
underwater microphone, or
hydrophone, which recorded the
underwater acoustical
environment 33m below the
surface for one entire year.
beginning in June 2015. For our
study, we analyzed a
representative subsample of these
data to help build our
understanding of the acoustical
environment.
300
400 500
100
Number of Detections
200
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Hour
Figure 5: Human-associated noise (n=4078)
peaked during the middle of the night and
during evening hours, with a lull in the
middle of the day.
1.00-
0.90-
0.80-
0.70-
0.60-
0.50-
0.40-
0.30-
0.20-
0.00
kHz
s 6.946
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
Figure 9: Spectrogram depicting the presence of a motorized boat
passing within the vicinity of the hydrophone. The broadband nature of
boat noise has the potential to cover up or mask many biological sounds,
potentially disrupting animal communication.
15-
Conclusions
• This work is helping to establish a
baseline understanding of the marine
acoustical environment of the
National Park of American Samoa.
This initial study will inform
subsequent studies further examining
acoustical data collected within the
park.
Resulting findings will support
management decisions intended to
aid species that use acoustic
communication.
• Extracted sound clips may be used for
park interpretation in order to raise
visitor awareness about natural
sounds and noise pollution in the
park, as well as how they interact to
affect marine ecosystems.
Acknowledgements
National Park Service
Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division
Sound and Light Ecology Team
Holger Klinck
Samara Haver
Leila Hatch
Haru Matsumoto
Eva DiDonato
Tracy Ziegler
Nations Online Project
SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
Fagamalo
Pico P
Fond Building
Facatoer
Crappy
Alono
Onenca
Cape M
Aurasi
Aunu'
Figure 2: The presence of
biological sounds and
2.40
2.20-
2134
human-associated noise in our
2.00-
2131
242729
21482
2144
1.80-
subsamples were viewed on
1.60-
spectrograms and then logged
1.40-
using the acoustical analysis
2124
2539
2137
2540
2149
1.20-
software 'Raven'. For
2123
2119
1.00-
2125
2128
spectrograms, the x-axis
0.80-
2122
represents time and the y-axis
2541
2148
2143
2146
2150
2141
ཟེ
0.60-
represents frequency or pitch.
2135
2138
0.40-
Finally, brighter colors
represent louder acoustic
events.
2139
2133 2132
2130
0.20
2120
2145
0.00
וח-
ΜΠΕ
h:m:s1:43:21.666
1:43:26
1:43:31
1:43:36
1:43:41
1:43:46
1:43:51
1:43:56
1:44:01
1:44:06
1:44:11
2152
Figure 6: Whale vocalizations were only seen
during the Spring in the waters of National Park
of American Samoa. Yearly patterns for fish
vocalizations and non-natural noise are not
evident, but further investigation using a larger
subsample of the acoustical data might better
bring into focus any patterns which may exist.
Number of Calls per Time Period
10-
F
10
ம
-5-
-10-
June/July 2015
(Winter)
October 2015
(Spring)
February 2016
(Summer)
FISH
NON-NATURAL
WHALE
Poloa
SAMOA
SATANCA BANK
College
Mound
Int. Airport
Pavaria
Pago Pago ASIA
China
Japan
Leone
Cours
Futiga
chary
and Shark Legend
Hawaii
(U.S.)
Philippines
Pacific
Ocean
-Equator-
Indonesia Papua
New Guinea
Indian
Ocean
AMERICAN
SAMOA
Australia
New
Zealand
Figure 10: The red star depicts the monitoring location
where acoustical data were collected in the National
Park of American Samoa. Inset map places the park in a
global context.View entire presentation