Through-ice communication by Weddell seals may not be practicable

Possible communication between territorial male Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) under the ice with females on the ice was investigated. In-air and underwater recordings of underwater calls were made at three locations near Davis, Antarctica. Most underwater calls were not detectable in air, often because of wind noise. In-air call amplitudes of detectable calls ranged from 32-74 dB re. 20 microPa at 86 Hz down to 4-38 dB re. 20 microPa at 3.6 kHz. Most of these would be audible to humans. Only 26 of 582 amplitude measurements (from 230 calls) ranged from 5 dB to a maximum of 15 dB above the minimum harbour-seal (Phoca vitulina) in-air detection threshold. Seals on the ice could likely hear a few very loud underwater calls but only if the caller was nearby and there were no wind noises. The low detectability of underwater calls in air likely precludes effective communication between underwater seals and those on the ice.


See other metadata records and datasets associated with ASAC project 2122 (ASAC_2122) for further information.


The fields in this dataset are:


Column A: G = grunt, T = trill, CT = constant freq. trill, O = tone, C = chug, AW = ascending whistle, DW = descending whistle, L = growl, R - roar


Column B: frequency (Hz)


Column C: underwater call level NOTE dB re 20 uPa


Column D: in-air call level dB re 20 uPa


Column E: in-air background noise level at this frequency dB re 20 uPa


Column F: water - air difference dB


Column G: location, 1-3, see paper for code


Column H: seal in-air threshold dB re 20 uPa


Column I: human in-air threshold dB re 20 uPa


Column J: seal in-air threshold at this frequency dB re 20 uPa

Simple

Identification info

Alternate title
Through-ice communication by Weddell seals may not be practicable
Date (Publication)
2004-12-17
Edition
1
Citation identifier
Dataset DOI

Title
Information and documentation - Digital object identifier system
Date (Publication)
2012-04-23
Citation identifier
ISO 26324:2012

Citation identifier
doi:10.4225/15/55EF991B8EEAB

Originator

Terhune, J.M.

Publisher

Australian Antarctic Data Centre

Principal investigator

TERHUNE, JOHN MOORE
Department of Biology
PO Box 5050
University of New Brunswick
Saint John
New Brunswick
E2L 4L5
Canada

Collaborator

TERHUNE, JOHN MOORE
Department of Biology
PO Box 5050
University of New Brunswick
Saint John
New Brunswick
E2L 4L5
Canada
Name
CAASM Metadata
Website
https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/ASAC_2122-3

Status
Completed

Custodian

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Oceans

Extent

N
S
E
W


Extent

Description
Temporal Coverage

Temporal extent

TimePeriod
1997-12-01 1997-12-08
Title
Through-ice communication by Weddell seals may not be practicable
Date (Publication)
2004
Citation identifier
27

Author

Terhune, J.M.
Name
Polar Biology
Page
810-812
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES
  • EARTH SCIENCE > BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION > ANIMALS/VERTEBRATES > MAMMALS
Keywords
  • ATTRIBUTE
  • CALL TYPE
  • CALLS
  • CASEY
  • DAVIS
  • ELEMENTS
  • FREQUENCY
  • LEPTONYCHOTES WEDDELLII
  • REPETITION
  • TIME
  • TRILLS
  • UNDERWATER
  • VOCALISATIONS
  • WEDDELL SEALS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • HYDROPHONES
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • FIELD SURVEYS
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • AMD/AU
  • CEOS
  • AMD
NASA/GCMD Earth Science Keywords
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA > Davis
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Resource constraints

Use limitation
This metadata record is publicly available.

Resource constraints

Access constraints
licence
Other constraints
These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Resource constraints

File type
Portable Network Graphic
Linkage
Creative Commons by Attribution logo

Title
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Legal code for Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 International license

Use constraints
licence
Other constraints
This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=ASAC_2122-3 when using these data.
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor

Distributor

AU/AADC > Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia - AADC, DATA OFFICER (DATA CENTER CONTACT)
Australian Antarctic Division
203 Channel Highway
Kingston
Tasmania
7050
Australia

Distributor

Fees
free
Planned available datetime
2004-12-17T00:00:00
Units of distribution
KB
Transfer size
7
Distribution format
  • csv

OnLine resource
GET DATA

Download point for the data - vocalisation results

OnLine resource
PROJECT HOME PAGE

Public information for ASAC project 2122

OnLine resource
VIEW RELATED INFORMATION

Citation reference for this metadata record and dataset

Resource lineage

Statement
Recordings were made on an opportunistic basis on 1 and 8 December 1997 at 68.5699S, 77.9266E. This site was 1.55 km from the shoreline at Davis Station, eastern Antarctica. The water depth was 23m. The 2-m-thick-land-fast sea ice in the recording area had previously been broken up and refrozen following the arrival of the R.S.V. Aurora Australis during the station resupply 2 months earlier. There were at least five adult Weddell seals (two of each sex and one whose sex was unknown) using breathing ad haul-out holes in the area. Simultaneous in-air and underwater recordings of underwater vocalisations were made in three locations, each with different ice conditions: (1) refrozen large blocks of ice with 30cm of snow, (2) a refrozen lead with 10cm of snow and 10cm of ice, and (3) 7-month-old sea ice, 2m thick with a thin layer of snow. Each recording location was adjacent to a breathing hole maintained by the seals. For more information, see the referenced paper.
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Maintenance note
2015-09-09 - record updated by Dave Connell. Basic updates.

Metadata

Metadata identifier
string/ASAC_2122-3

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Author

TERHUNE, JOHN MOORE
Department of Biology
PO Box 5050
University of New Brunswick
Saint John
New Brunswick
E2L 4L5
Canada

Sponsor

Australian Antarctic Division

Owner

AADC

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
7ebed54f-426b-4c9a-aaaf-e9300220a67f

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Date (Last Revision)
2015-11-29T18:22:32

Identifier

Description
metadata.extraction_date

Alternative metadata reference

Title
gov.nasa.gsfc.gcmd
Citation identifier
8.6

Metadata linkage
http://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/ASAC_2122-3

Point of truth for the metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2002-05-29T00:00:00
Date info (Last Update)
2017-04-26

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-3
Edition
2014
Other citation details
Version 1
Title
DIF to ISO 19115-1 Profile
 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords


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Not available