Kathleen J. Vigness-Raposa

Discovery of Sound in the Sea: An Online Resource

The scientific community and the general public have become increasingly aware of and concerned about underwater sound. In addition, abstract physical science concepts can be challenging to understand. As the interest in underwater sound and its potential effects on the marine environment increases, there is a growing need for resources on the fundamental concepts of underwater sound. The Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) Web site (http://www.dosits.org) has been designed to provide comprehensive scientific information on underwater sound at a level appropriate for the general public and for educational and media professionals (Vigness-Raposa et al. 2008). The DOSITS Web site introduces the physical science of underwater sound and how people and animals use sound to accomplish various tasks in three science sections, three resources sections, and three galleries. DOSITS was recently redesigned to include an interactive front page, an interactive Audio Gallery, and a redesigned Scientist Gallery.

Environmental Assessment of Offshore Wind Power Generation: Effect on a Noise Budget

The construction, operation, and removal of offshore wind power facilities have the potential to increase the levels of noise in the surrounding waters. Increased shipping noise can be associated with all phases of the life cycle of wind farms. Pile driving during platform construction can be short-lived but can introduce very high intensity pulses into the ocean. Operational noise, while at a much lower level, can affect the surrounding area almost continuously for the life of the facility. The removal of wind platforms at the end of their operational life may use explosives, again short-lived but very intense.

Visualization of spatially explicit acoustic layers in an underwater soundscape

Soundscapes emphasize the way in which the acoustic environment is perceived by an individual or species. Anthropogenic sounds have the potential to cause behavioral responses or even injury in marine mammals. Exposure criteria include sound pressure level (SPL) and sound exposure level (SEL) thresholds that, when exceeded, have the potential to cause auditory injury to marine mammals. While there is a general understanding of the hearing capabilities in representative marine species, the behavioral responses of these animals are not well understood. These responses are thought to be strongly affected by the context of exposure (animal activity at time of exposure, habituation/sensitization to the sound, etc.) in addition to acoustic metrics, such as received level (RL). To investigate the complexity of sound exposure, a user-friendly, interactive tool has been developed that utilizes a holistic and multi-dimensional approach to the exposure scenario in order to address the spatial relationships among noi...

Exposures v. Individuals: Effects of varying movement patterns and animal behavior on long-term animat model exposure predictions

Predictions of animal exposure to anthropogenic acoustic sources have become increasingly sophisticated through simulating animal behavior. A long-standing issue has been the question of how many exposures occur during an activity and how those exposures are distributed over individual animals. A sensitivity study evaluated the effects of simulation duration, source movement, animal movement and group size. Two airgun array survey patterns (2D and 3D) were modeled, each with a one-month duration. During each simulation, animal movement was modeled for low-frequency, shallow and deep diving mid-frequency, and high-frequency cetaceans. The unweighted 160 dB RMS exposure threshold for behavior was used to evaluate the effect of different modeling parameters. Results found that simulating animals in groups does not alter the predicted level of exposure, but it does increase its variance. Examining the full 30 day exposure records found that deeper divers had a greater number of exposures. The more wide-rangin...

Source localization using a compact tetrahedral array

We localized sound sources collected on a compact tetrahedral hydrophone array in a continental shelf environment south of Block Island, Rhode Island. The tetrahedral array of phones, 0.5 m on a side, was deployed to monitor the underwater sound of construction and operation of the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Signals from shipping and marine mammals, including fin whales, humpback whales, and right whales, were detected on the array. Directions of arrival (DOAs) for a number of signals were computed using a time difference of arrival technique. Given the DOAs, ranges were estimated using supervised machine learning techniques outlined by Niu et al. (JASA, 2017). The approach was tested using simulated data from Kraken assuming environmental information consistent with this continental shelf environment. Performance on signals from individual ships and marine mammals is presented. Ship localizations are compared to Automated Identification System (AIS) fixes. An error analysis is also presented. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.]

Discovery of sound in the sea: Webinars as a means of communicating current underwater acoustics research to decision makers

Underwater sound used for anthropogenic activities is reviewed and restricted under a variety of environmental regulations. Decision makers must often synthesize rapidly new scientific research results to inform their assessments of potential impacts of proposed projects. To assist this need, the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography has teamed with Marine Acoustics, Inc., in the Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) project to provide accurate scientific information on underwater sound through a diversity of resources and digital platforms, including webinars. Building on the foundation of the successful 2015-2016 DOSITS webinar series and informed by the results of three international regulatory community needs assessments, the DOSITS project is hosting throughout 2018 a four-part webinar series on the fundamentals of underwater hearing and potential impacts of underwater sound on marine animals, particularly marine mammals (April–May) and fishes (November). Evaluation results from the first two webinars on marine mammals showed that 90% of survey respondents were very satisfied or satisfied with the content coverage, and 97% were extremely or very likely to attend future DOSITS webinars. The webinar approach has provided much needed on-the-job training for decision makers to effectively incorporate new scientific research into their evaluation processes.Underwater sound used for anthropogenic activities is reviewed and restricted under a variety of environmental regulations. Decision makers must often synthesize rapidly new scientific research results to inform their assessments of potential impacts of proposed projects. To assist this need, the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography has teamed with Marine Acoustics, Inc., in the Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) project to provide accurate scientific information on underwater sound through a diversity of resources and digital platforms, including webinars. Building on the foundation of the successful 2015-2016 DOSITS webinar series and informed by the results of three international regulatory community needs assessments, the DOSITS project is hosting throughout 2018 a four-part webinar series on the fundamentals of underwater hearing and potential impacts of underwater sound on marine animals, particularly marine mammals (April–May) and fishes (November). Evaluation results from...

Characteristics of the soundscape before and after the construction of the Block Island Wind Farm

The Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) south of Rhode Island is the first offshore windfarm in the United States. As part of the Ocean Special Area Management Plan, acoustic data were collected before the construction in the fall of 2009. Noise budgets were estimated based on this data and showed the dominant sources of sound in a 1/3-octave band centered at 500 Hz were shipping and wind. Data were again collected during and after construction of the wind farm and will be presented and compared to pre-construction levels. In 2009, Passive Aquatic Listener (PALs) were deployed. After construction was complete, data from a tetrahedral hydrophone array (~50 m from one of the wind turbines) were analyzed to study the soundscape from December 20, 2016 to January 14, 2017. The acoustic environment near the BIWF after construction showed contributions from shipping, wind, and marine life. Noise from the wind turbine was measured near 70 Hz at approximately 100 dB re 1 mPa at a range of 50 m. Significant marine mammal vocalizations were recorded including from humpback and fin whales. (Work supported by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.) The Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) south of Rhode Island is the first offshore windfarm in the United States. As part of the Ocean Special Area Management Plan, acoustic data were collected before the construction in the fall of 2009. Noise budgets were estimated based on this data and showed the dominant sources of sound in a 1/3-octave band centered at 500 Hz were shipping and wind. Data were again collected during and after construction of the wind farm and will be presented and compared to pre-construction levels. In 2009, Passive Aquatic Listener (PALs) were deployed. After construction was complete, data from a tetrahedral hydrophone array (~50 m from one of the wind turbines) were analyzed to study the soundscape from December 20, 2016 to January 14, 2017. The acoustic environment near the BIWF after construction showed contributions from shipping, wind, and marine life. Noise from the wind turbine was measured near 70 Hz at approximately 100 dB re 1 mPa at a range of 50 m. Significant marine mammal...

Measurements of underwater sound radiated from an offshore wind turbine

Underwater acoustic and geophysical systems were deployed to monitor the operation of the Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF). The BIWF consists of five GE Haliade 150-6MW wind turbines each with 150 m diameter blades. The five wind turbines were laid out about 1 km apart in a southwest-to-northeast arc. Each turbine is equipped with a direct drive permanent magnet generator, with no gearbox coupled to the generator. These turbines are variable speed and have independent pitch control by blade. The equipment used to monitor the BIWF operation consisted of a towed array of eight hydrophones, two VLAs with four hydrophones each and a fixed sensor package for measuring particle velocity. This sensor package consists of a three-axis geophone on the seabed and a tetrahedral array of four hydrophones at 1 m from the bottom. Additionally, an acoustic vector sensor was deployed in mid-water. During operations in December 2016, an acoustic signal was detected by the tetrahedral array of hydrophones at a position 50 mete...

Variations in the acoustic field recorded during pile-driving construction of the Block Island Wind Farm

The Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in the United States, consists of five 6-MW turbines three miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island in water depths of approximately 30 m. The turbines include a jacket-type substructure with four piles driven at an angle of approximately 13 deg to the vertical to pin the structure to the seabed. The acoustic field was measured during pile driving of two turbines in September 2015 with an 8-element towed horizontal line array. Measurements began at a range of 1 km from the turbine on which piling was occurring and extended to a range of 8 km from the construction. The peak-to-peak received level, sound exposure level, and kurtosis from each pile strike were determined as a function of range from the pile. The ambient noise just prior to each signal was also measured to calculate signal-to-noise ratio values. Results provide insight into the transition from fast-rise-time impulsive signals at close range to slow-rise-time non-impulsive signals a...

Overview of underwater acoustic and seismic measurements of the construction and operation of the Block Island Wind Farm

The Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF), the first offshore wind farm in the United States, consists of five 6-MW turbines 3 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island in water depths of approximately 30 m. Construction began in the summer of 2015 and power production began in late 2016. Underwater acoustic and geophysical measurement systems were deployed to acquire real-time observations of the construction and initial operation of a wind facility to aid the evaluation of environmental effects of future facilities. The substructure for these BIWF turbines consists of jacket type construction with piles driven to the bottom to pin the structure to the seabed. The equipment used to monitor construction and initial operation consisted of a towed array consisting of eight hydrophones, two fixed moorings with four hydrophones each and a fixed sensor package for measuring particle velocity. This sensor package consists of a three-axis geophone on the seabed and a tetrahedral array of four low sensitivity hydroph...