Retrieving the Ocean with Artificial Intelligence
Dr. B Misha Chandar
Assistant Professor VIT University
Key Highlights
- The UDA framework emphasizes the need to build an appropriate acoustic capacity to lend a hand in underwater conservation and sustainable growth.
- The composition of the ocean soundscape has drastically altered post-industrial revolution due to the ramping up of anthropogenic activities in the ocean that disturb the natural functioning of marine species.
- Soundscape monitoring is gradually gaining significance in designing more informed and effective managerial policies. This has the potential to pave the way for a protected acoustic ocean environment in the future.
Sound plays an inevitable role in the lives of ocean-dwelling species. It travels the fastest and farthest in the ocean. Marine species from marine invertebrates to large-sized cetaceans rely on sound for their survival. Its unique adaptations aid these species to communicate, navigate, localize, and understand their ambient environment. A soundscape is a combination of sounds that arises from an immersive environment. Ocean soundscapes are made up of sounds produced by anthrophony (ocean-based anthropogenic activities such as shipping, fishing activities, dredging, exploratory and recreational activities), biophony (marine species such as marine mammals, fishes, and marine invertebrates) and geophony (ocean-based geophysical activities such as rain dropping hitting the ocean floor, gushing waves, iceberg breaking and undersea earthquakes, volcanic eruptions). The composition of the ocean soundscape has drastically altered post-industrial revolution due to the ramping up of anthropogenic activities in the ocean that disturb the natural functioning of the marine species, hindering their communication largely. The current ocean soundscape shows a decreased abundance of marine species, rising anthropogenic activities and the erratically occurring geophysical activities. The ambient ocean noise from the anthropogenic sources is found to have a masking effect on the marine species’ auditory system that weakens their ability to forage for prey, escape from predators or attract their mate. Their prolonged effect, in the long run, has notably diminished the population of certain marine species.
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Dr. B Misha Chandar
Assistant Professor VIT University
Dr. B Misha Chandar works as an Assistant Professor VIT University- AP