A Field-Ready Playback System for Eco-Acoustic and Settlement Studies

用于生态声学和沉降研究的现场回放系统

• 批准号: 2318921
• 负责人: Aran Mooney
• 金额: $ 69.07万
• 依托单位: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2026-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2318921&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Field; Ready; Playback; System; Eco

Given human’s expanding use of the ocean, there is increasing need to understand natural and anthropogenic noise impacts to sound-sensitive taxa. Understanding acoustic ecology is vital as given rates of ocean changes and the fact that science is still unraveling how marine animals use sound to communicate, detect predators, seek prey and find suitable habitat. To gain this knowledge there is a need for a cost-effective, extended-duration tool that allows researchers to easily and experimentally replay sound cues, manipulate soundscapes and introduce ‘noise’ in field-based experiments to address new questions in ocean ecology and conservation. This effort will support the build and testing of a scalable, cost-effective, ocean-ready and long-duration sound playback tool. This tool will enable scientists to gather new insight into how sound is used by and impacts diverse marine fauna. The research will focus pilot tests on coral reefs, imperiled hubs of biodiversity that support billions of USD in ecosystem services, and seek to enhance the attraction and settlement of young corals as a method to support and potentially rebuild reefs. The project will incorporate and train undergraduate and graduate students, young technicians, and engineers, including underrepresented minorities, in all aspects of this development and testing. This effort is designed to be self-sustaining so that once it is completed, other scientists and stakeholders will be able to use acoustic enrichment and new questions to support the redevelopment of reefs and conduct previously unobtainable ecosystem studies. The science will be piloted and optimized through beta-experiments replaying soundscapes to attract coral larvae and induce settlement onto reefs. The team involved will leverage the emerging understanding of reef soundscapes, their own key data, and a beta-system, to enable this acoustically-mediated playback and larval settlement investigation tool. The technical components of the system will be durable and optimized for the playback of reef sounds, enhancing its dynamic range, sound propagation, and variety of sound patterns. The pilot tool will be tested and optimized at an established US Virgin Islands field station with years of measurements on soundscapes and community dynamics. Additional testing and user-feedback integrated will occur a new site in Year 2. From these calibrations, iterations and tests, the project will provide an important new natural-based instrument for the toolboxes of scientists and stakeholders to conduct novel acoustics studies surrounding the fields of marine ecology, changing oceans, physical oceanography, and broader basic ocean research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

鉴于人类对海洋的利用不断扩大，越来越需要了解自然和人为噪声对声音敏感类群的影响，因为海洋变化的速度以及科学仍在阐明海洋动物如何利用声音来进行活动的事实。为了获得这些知识，需要一种经济高效、持续时间较长的工具，使研究人员能够轻松地通过实验重放声音提示、操纵音景并在其中引入“噪音”。解决海洋生态和保护工作中的新问题的现场实验这将支持构建和测试可扩展的、具有成本效益的、适用于海洋的长期声音播放工具，该工具将使科学家能够收集新的见解。该研究将重点对珊瑚礁（支持数十亿美元生态系统服务的濒危生物多样性中心）进行试点测试，并寻求增强幼珊瑚的吸引力和定居点。支持并可能重建该项目将在开发和测试的各个方面吸收和培训本科生和研究生、年轻技术人员和工程师，包括代表性不足的少数族裔。这项工作旨在实现自我维持，以便一旦完成，其他科学家也能参与其中。利益相关者将能够利用声学富集和新问题来支持珊瑚礁的重建，并进行以前无法实现的生态系统研究，该科学将通过重放声景的贝塔实验进行试点和优化，以吸引珊瑚幼虫并诱导定居。参与的团队将利用对珊瑚礁声景的新兴理解、他们自己的关键数据和测试系统，来实现这种以声学为媒介的回放和幼虫沉降调查工具，该系统的技术组件将是持久的和优化的。用于播放珊瑚礁声音，增强其动态范围、声音传播和声音模式的多样性。该试点工具将在一个已建立的美属维尔京群岛现场站进行测试和优化，并对声景和社区动态进行多年的测量。用户反馈集成将在第二年在新地点进行。通过这些校准、迭代和测试，该项目将为科学家和利益相关者的工具箱提供一种重要的新的基于自然的仪器，以围绕海洋生态、改变海洋等领域进行新颖的声学研究该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。