Analysis of High Spatial, Temporal, and Directional Resolution Recordings of Biological Sounds in the Southern California Bight.

摘要

The long-term goals of this research effort were to detect, localize, and characterize the underwater biological sounds in the Southern California Bight for the benefit of Navy environmental compliance. The particular focus in this program was on the biological sounds at low to mid frequencies recorded during a large Navy experiment off the southern California coast in 1999. The data analysis efforts helped support the thesis research by two graduate students at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), studying a) the potential impact of man-made sound on the calling behavior of baleen whales in the Southern California Bight, and b) the development of smart data acquisition systems for oceanographic research. In addition, two undergraduate students in the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Environmental Engineering department participated in the project. One aspect of the data analysis conducted to date was an in-depth investigation of an unusual biological chorus off the Southern California coast, and the application of the physics of excitable media to numerical modeling of this and other biological choruses. The analysis results helped characterize the low frequency underwater sonic environment in an area of operational (training) interest to the Navy.