Singing in a noisy ocean: vocal plasticity in male humpback whales

IF 16.4 1区化学 Q1 CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Accounts of Chemical Research Pub Date : 2022-09-28 DOI:10.1080/09524622.2022.2122560

E. Girola, R. Dunlop, M. Noad

{"title":"Singing in a noisy ocean: vocal plasticity in male humpback whales","authors":"E. Girola, R. Dunlop, M. Noad","doi":"10.1080/09524622.2022.2122560","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The songs produced by male humpback whales are believed to be a reproductive display shared by all singers within the same population. Ocean noise can interfere with the transmission of acoustic signals such as humpback whale songs. However, humpback whales evolved in an environment characterised by variable levels of noise generated by natural sources. This study investigates whether singing males compensate for natural noise by changing the characteristics of their sounds. Songs were recorded off eastern Australia during periods of time when the soundscape was dominated by natural noise. Source level, peak frequency and duration were measured for 2,318 song units from 19 singers. Source levels were positively correlated with noise levels, while there was no correlation between the peak frequency or duration of the units and noise levels. Our study shows that male humpback whales increase the source level of their units in response to increasing natural noise, i.e. they have a Lombard response, but they do not modify their spectral or temporal characteristics. This suggests that the need to adhere to the shared repertoire prevents changes to distinctive features of song units, i.e. frequency and duration, however, vocal plasticity allows adjusting source levels to the environmental conditions.","PeriodicalId":1,"journal":{"name":"Accounts of Chemical Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":16.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Accounts of Chemical Research","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09524622.2022.2122560","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT The songs produced by male humpback whales are believed to be a reproductive display shared by all singers within the same population. Ocean noise can interfere with the transmission of acoustic signals such as humpback whale songs. However, humpback whales evolved in an environment characterised by variable levels of noise generated by natural sources. This study investigates whether singing males compensate for natural noise by changing the characteristics of their sounds. Songs were recorded off eastern Australia during periods of time when the soundscape was dominated by natural noise. Source level, peak frequency and duration were measured for 2,318 song units from 19 singers. Source levels were positively correlated with noise levels, while there was no correlation between the peak frequency or duration of the units and noise levels. Our study shows that male humpback whales increase the source level of their units in response to increasing natural noise, i.e. they have a Lombard response, but they do not modify their spectral or temporal characteristics. This suggests that the need to adhere to the shared repertoire prevents changes to distinctive features of song units, i.e. frequency and duration, however, vocal plasticity allows adjusting source levels to the environmental conditions.

查看原文本刊更多论文

在嘈杂的海洋中唱歌：雄性座头鲸的声音可塑性

摘要雄性座头鲸的歌声被认为是同一种群中所有歌手的生殖展示。海洋噪音会干扰声学信号的传输，例如座头鲸的歌声。然而，座头鲸是在自然来源产生的噪音水平可变的环境中进化而来的。这项研究调查了唱歌的雄性是否通过改变声音的特征来补偿自然噪音。歌曲是在澳大利亚东部以自然噪音为主的时期录制的。测量了来自19位歌手的2318首歌曲单元的源电平、峰值频率和持续时间。源水平与噪声水平呈正相关，而单元的峰值频率或持续时间与噪声水平之间没有相关性。我们的研究表明，雄性座头鲸会随着自然噪音的增加而增加其单位的来源水平，即它们具有伦巴第响应，但不会改变其光谱或时间特征。这表明，坚持共享曲目的必要性阻止了歌曲单元的独特特征（即频率和持续时间）的变化，然而，人声的可塑性允许根据环境条件调整音源水平。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Accounts of Chemical Research 化学-化学综合

CiteScore

31.40

自引率

1.10%

发文量

312

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Accounts of Chemical Research presents short, concise and critical articles offering easy-to-read overviews of basic research and applications in all areas of chemistry and biochemistry. These short reviews focus on research from the author’s own laboratory and are designed to teach the reader about a research project. In addition, Accounts of Chemical Research publishes commentaries that give an informed opinion on a current research problem. Special Issues online are devoted to a single topic of unusual activity and significance. Accounts of Chemical Research replaces the traditional article abstract with an article "Conspectus." These entries synopsize the research affording the reader a closer look at the content and significance of an article. Through this provision of a more detailed description of the article contents, the Conspectus enhances the article's discoverability by search engines and the exposure for the research.