Are men better than women at acoustic size judgements?

Formants are important phonetic elements of human speech that are also used by humans and non-human mammals to assess the body size of potential mates and rivals. As a consequence, it has been suggested that formant perception, which is crucial for speech perception, may have evolved through sexual selection. Somewhat surprisingly, though, no previous studies have examined whether sexes differ in their ability to use formants for size evaluation. Here, we investigated whether men and women differ in their ability to use the formant frequency spacing of synthetic vocal stimuli to make auditory size judgements over a wide range of fundamental frequencies (the main determinant of vocal pitch). Our results reveal that men are significantly better than women at comparing the apparent size of stimuli, and that lower pitch improves the ability of both men and women to perform these acoustic size judgements. These findings constitute the first demonstration of a sex difference in formant perception, and lend support to the idea that acoustic size normalization, a crucial prerequisite for speech perception, may have been sexually selected through male competition. We also provide the first evidence that vocalizations with relatively low pitch improve the perception of size-related formant information.     

Sex recognition in brown skuas: do acoustic signals matter?

Bird vocalisations are often essential for sex recognition, especially in species that show little morphological sex dimorphism. Brown skuas (Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi), which exhibit uniform plumage across both sexes, emit three main calls: the long call, the alarm call and the contact call. We tested the potential for sex recognition in brown skua calls of 42 genetically sexed individuals by analysing 8–12 acoustic parameters in the temporal and frequency domains of each call type. For every call type, we failed to find sex differences in any of the acoustic parameters measured. Stepwise discriminant function analysis (DFA) revealed that sexes cannot be unambiguously classified, with increasing uncertainty of correct classification from contact calls to long calls to alarm calls. Consequently, acoustic signalling is probably not the key mechanism for sex recognition in brown skuas.     

Ultrasonic acoustic emissions in drought-stressed trees--more than signals from cavitation?

Ultrasonic acoustic emission (UAE) in trees is often related to collapsing water columns in the flow path as a result of tensions that are too strong (cavitation). However, in a decibel (dB) range below that associated with cavitation, a close relationship was found between UAE intensities and stem radius changes. UAE was continuously recorded on the stems of mature field-grown trees of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and pubescent oak (Quercus pubescens) at a dry inner-Alpine site in Switzerland over two seasons. The averaged 20-Hz records were related to microclimatic conditions in air and soil, sap-flow rates and stem-radius fluctuations detrended for growth (Delta W). Within a low-dB range (27 +/- 1 dB), UAE regularly increased and decreased in a diurnal rhythm in parallel with DeltaW on cloudy days and at night. These low-dB emissions were interrupted by UAE abruptly switching between the low-dB range and a high-dB range (36 +/- 1 dB) on clear, sunny days, corresponding to the widely supported interpretation of UAE as sound from cavitations. It is hypothesized that the low-dB signals in drought-stressed trees are caused by respiration and/or cambial growth as these physiological activities are tissue water-content dependent and have been shown to produce courses of CO(2) efflux similar to our courses of Delta W and low-dB UAE.     

Blown away? Wind speed and foraging success in an acoustic predator

Mammal Research - Foraging animals must contend with fluctuating environmental variables that affect foraging success, including conditions like wind noise, which could diminish the usefulness of...     

Can an acoustic observatory contribute to the conservation of threatened species?

Observatories are designed to collect data for a range of uses. The Australian Acoustic Observatory (A2O) was established to collect environmental sound, including audible species calls, from 344 recorders at 86 sites around Australia. We examine the potential of the A2O to monitor near threatened, threatened, endangered and critically endangered species, based on their vocal behaviour, geographic distributions in relation to the sites of the A2O and on some knowledge of habitat use. Using IUCN and EPBC lists of threatened and endangered species, we extracted species that vocalized in the audible range, and using conservative estimates of their geographic ranges, determined whether there was a possibility of hearing them at these sites. We found that it may be possible to detect up to 171 threatened species at sites established for the A2O, and that individual sites have the potential to detect up to 40 threatened species. All 86 sites occurred in locations where threatened species could possibly be detected, and the list of detectable species included birds, amphibians, and mammals. We have incidentally detected one mammal and four bird species in the data during other work. Threatening processes to which potentially detectable species were exposed included all but two IUCN threat categories. We concluded that with applications of technology to search the audio data from the A2O, it could serve as an important tool for monitoring threatened species.     

Why are inappropriate barrier-free acoustic designs for visually impaired persons provided?

In Japan, many sounds designed for the visually handicapped are not only useless, but also create noise for the impaired and non-impaired people alike. Interview surveys with visually handicapped people were analyzed to reveal why inappropriate barrier-free acoustic designs have been provided for them. Responses from participants were divided into three categories: (1) mistaken needs-assessments, (2) poor technical knowledge of the visually impaired and (3) problems of power/political relationships. Furthermore, the responses of almost all the participants seemed to apply as well to other kinds of barrier-free designs, in spite of the fact that the topic of this survey focused only on acoustic designs. The results suggest that we must examine social as well as technical and psychological issues when we plan barrier-free designs.     

Can the acoustic adaptation hypothesis predict the structure of Australian birdsong?

The acoustic adaptation hypothesis (AAH) predicts that long-distance signals will be structured so as to maximize their transmission fidelity. Previous studies testing the hypothesis on birdsong have provided equivocal support. The best support comes from large-scale comparative studies and those studies where habitat is characterized as open versus densely vegetated. In the first case, sufficient statistical power is present to detect even small effects on song structure, whereas in the later case the effect size of the habitat may be sufficiently large. Most studies have focused on Holarctic or Neotropical species, which may ultimately share a common evolutionary history. In this study, Australian birds were chosen for a phylogenetically independent test of key predictions of the AAH. Specifically, birds in open habitats were predicted to sing songs with higher frequencies, greater bandwidth, have a greater probability of having overtones, and be emitted at a quicker rate than birds inhabiting densely forested habitats. Acoustic measurements were made on commercially available recordings of 121 species of Australian birds from 41 different families. Analyses controlled for variation explained by body mass (using ANCOVA), and phylogeny (using genus pairs analyses). We found only modest support for the AAH. Our finding that birds in open habitats produced higher frequency vocalizations and greater bandwidth vocalizations is also consistent with hypotheses about signal structure facilitating auditory distance assessment. Forest birds may therefore rely on cues other than frequency-dependent attenuation for ranging.     

Dust−ion acoustic freak wave propagation in a nonthermal mesospheric dusty plasma

Nonlinear properties of dust?ion acoustic freak waves have been studied in homogeneous unmagnetized dusty plasmas consisting of ions, nonthermal fast electrons, and positive and negative dust grains. By using derivative expansion method under the assumption of strongly dispersive medium, the basic equations are reduced to nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). One of NLSE solutions in the unstable region is the rational one which is responsible for creation of the freak waves. The dependence of the freak wave profile on the dust grain charge, carrier wavenumber, and energetic nonthermal electron population is discussed.     

Dust acoustic solitons in the dusty plasma of the Earth’s ionosphere

Plasma Physics Reports - Stratified structures that are observed at heights of 80–95 km in the lower part of the Earth’s ionosphere are known as noctilucent clouds and polar mesosphere...     

Near-real-time acoustic monitoring of beaked whales and other cetaceans using a Seaglider™

In most areas, estimating the presence and distribution of cryptic marine mammal species, such as beaked whales, is extremely difficult using traditional observational techniques such as ship-based visual line transect surveys. Because acoustic methods permit detection of animals underwater, at night, and in poor weather conditions, passive acoustic observation has been used increasingly often over the last decade to study marine mammal distribution, abundance, and movements, as well as for mitigation of potentially harmful anthropogenic effects. However, there is demand for new, cost-effective tools that allow scientists to monitor areas of interest autonomously with high temporal and spatial resolution in near-real time. Here we describe an autonomous underwater vehicle--a glider--equipped with an acoustic sensor and onboard data processing capabilities to passively scan an area for marine mammals in near-real time. The glider was tested extensively off the west coast of the Island of Hawai'i, USA. The instrument covered approximately 390 km during three weeks at sea and collected a total of 194 h of acoustic data. Detections of beaked whales were successfully reported to shore in near-real time. Manual analysis of the recorded data revealed a high number of vocalizations of delphinids and sperm whales. Furthermore, the glider collected vocalizations of unknown origin very similar to those made by known species of beaked whales. The instrument developed here can be used to cost-effectively screen areas of interest for marine mammals for several months at a time. The near-real-time detection and reporting capabilities of the glider can help to protect marine mammals during potentially harmful anthropogenic activities such as seismic exploration for sub-sea fossil fuels or naval sonar exercises. Furthermore, the glider is capable of under-ice operation, allowing investigation of otherwise inaccessible polar environments that are critical habitats for many endangered marine mammal species.     

Modulational excitation of low-frequency dust acoustic waves in the Earth’s lower ionosphere

During the observation of Perseid, Leonid, Gemenid, and Orionid meteor showers, stable low-frequency lines in the frequency range of 20–60 Hz were recorded against the radio-frequency noise background. A physical mechanism for this effect is proposed, and it is established that the effect itself is related to the modulational interaction between electromagnetic and dust acoustic waves. The dynamics of the components of a complex (dusty) ionospheric plasma with dust produced from the evolution of meteoric material is described. The conditions for the existence of dust acoustic waves in the ionosphere are considered, and the waves are shown to dissipate energy mainly in collisions of neutral particles with charged dust grains. The modulational instability of electromagnetic waves in a complex (dusty) ionospheric plasma is analyzed and is found to be driven by the nonlinear Joule heating, the ponderomotive force, and the processes governing dust charging and dynamics. The conditions for the onset of the modulational instability of electromagnetic waves, as well as its growth rate and threshold, are determined for both daytime and nighttime. It is shown that low-frequency perturbations generated in the modulational interaction are related to dust acoustic waves.     

Does vocal learning accelerate acoustic diversification? Evolution of contact calls in Neotropical parrots

Learning has been traditionally thought to accelerate the evolutionary change of behavioural traits. We evaluated the evolutionary rate of learned vocalizations and the interplay of morphology and ecology in the evolution of these signals. We examined contact calls of 51 species of Neotropical parrots from the tribe Arini. Parrots are ideal subjects due to their wide range of body sizes and habitats, and their open‐ended vocal learning that allows them to modify their calls throughout life. We estimated the evolutionary rate of acoustic parameters of parrot contact calls and compared them to those of morphological traits and habitat. We also evaluated the effect of body mass, bill length, vegetation density and species interactions on acoustic parameters of contact calls while controlling for phylogeny. Evolutionary rates of acoustic parameters did not differ from those of our predictor variables except for spectral entropy, which had a significantly slower rate of evolution. We found support for correlated evolution of call duration, and fundamental and peak frequencies with body mass, and of fundamental frequency with bill length. The degree of sympatry between species did not have a significant effect on acoustic parameters. Our results suggest that parrot contact calls, which are learned acoustic signals, show evolutionary rates similar to those of morphological traits. This is the first study to our knowledge to provide evidence that change through cultural evolution does not necessarily accelerate the evolutionary rate of traits acquired through life‐long vocal learning.     

Who, what, where? Recognition and localization of acoustic signals by insects

Insects, like all hearing animals, must analyze acoustic signals to determine both their content and their location. Neurophysiological experiments, together with behavioral tests, are beginning to reveal the mechanisms underlying these signal-analysis tasks. Work summarized here focusses on two issues: first, how insects analyze the temporal structure of a single signal in the presence of other competing signals; and second, how the signal's location is represented by the binaural difference in neural activity.     

Can humans discriminate between dogs on the base of the acoustic parameters of barks?

In this study we tested the often suggested claim that people are able to recognize their dogs by their barks. Earlier studies in other species indicated that reliable discrimination between individuals cannot be made by listening to chaotically noisy vocalizations. As barking is typically such a chaotic noisy vocalization, we have hypothesized that reliable discrimination between individuals is not possible by listening to barks. In this study, playback experiments were conducted to explore (1) how accurately humans discriminate between dogs by hearing only their barks, (2) the impact of the eliciting context of calls on these discrimination performances, and (3) how much such discrimination depends on acoustic parameters (tonality and frequency of barks, and the intervals between the individual barks). Our findings were consistent with the previous studies: human performances did not pass the empirical threshold of reliable discrimination in most cases. But a significant effect of tonality was found: discrimination between individuals was more successful when listeners were listening to low harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR) barks. The contexts in which barks were recorded affected significantly the listeners' performances: if the dog barked at a stranger, listeners were able to discriminate the vocalizations better than if they were listening to sounds recorded when the dog was separated from its owner. It is rendered probable that the bark might be a more efficient communication system between humans and dogs for communicating the motivational state of an animal than for discrimination among strange individuals.     

Measuring acoustic complexity in continuously varying signals: how complex is a wolf howl?

Communicative complexity is a key behavioural and ecological indicator in the study of animal cognition. Much attention has been given to measures such as repertoire size and syntactic structure in both bird and mammal vocalizations, as large repertoires and complex call combinations may give an indication of the cognitive abilities both of the sender and receiver. However, many animals communicate using a continuous vocal signal that does not easily lend itself to be described by concepts such as ‘repertoire’. For example, dolphin whistles and wolf howls both have complex patterns of frequency modulation, so that no two howls or whistles are quite the same. Is there a sense in which some of these vocalizations may be more ‘complex’ than others? Can we arrive at a quantitative metric for complexity in a continuously varying signal? Such a metric would allow us to extend familiar analyses of communicative complexity to those species where vocal behaviour is not restricted to sequences of stereotyped syllables. We present four measures of complexity in continuous signals (Wiener Entropy, Autocorrelation, Inflection Point Count, and Parsons Entropy), and examine their relevance using example data from members of the genus Canis. We show that each metric can lead to different conclusions regarding which howls could be considered complex or not. Ultimately, complexity is poorly defined and researchers must compare metrics to ensure that they reflect the properties for which the hypothesis is being tested.     

Whistle variability of Guiana dolphins in South America: Latitudinal variation or acoustic adaptation?

A previous comparison of whistles using data sampled at 48 kHz suggested that certain frequency parameters vary along a latitudinal gradient. This geographical pattern may be biased because whistles sampled at higher frequencies could potentially have very different frequency contents. The current study compared the acoustic parameters of Guiana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) whistles recorded at a higher sampling rate (96 kHz) and from groups occupying two never before sampled sites, Benevente Bay, Espírito Santo, Brazil, and Formosa Bay, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, with recordings of other populations in South America. By only considering data sampled at a rate of at least 96 kHz, we aimed to detect differences in whistles across locations. Contrary to previous findings, our analyses do not indicate any clear separation between northern and southern populations based on whistles, and do not corroborate the hypothesis of latitudinal acoustic variation in this species. The variation in Guiana dolphin whistle parameters found here appears to be influenced by latitude to some extent, but several other factors, including sampling method, environmental fluctuations, and social influence on vocal learning, may be confounding the detection of a geographic pattern in these whistle samples.     

Does acoustic priming ‘sweeten the pot’ of floral nectar?

A recent claim that evening primrose flowers adaptively secrete nectar in response to vibrations from hovering bees lacks supporting evidence. The authors fail to demonstrate that bees can access the concealed nectar and that their visits enhance plant fitness. Reanalysis of the authors’ data raises additional concerns about their conclusions.     

Do sperm whales share coda vocalizations? Insights into coda usage from acoustic size measurement

Group-specific communication signals are found in many group-living species. One example is group variation in the production of codas, which are short stereotyped patterns of clicks produced in social contexts, by sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus. However, little is known about how codas are used by groups and individuals. We used the multipulse structure of sperm whale clicks to estimate the size of animals producing codas. Recordings of a single social unit containing nine largely unrelated animals made over a 1-month period yielded 879 codas of 32 distinctive types. We used an automatic technique to measure the interpulse interval of the clicks in these codas because the interpulse interval is closely related to the size of the animal. Ninety-four codas had sufficiently accurate measurements to be included in further analysis. Modes in the distribution of these measurements showed that more than one animal was producing codas. Comparing the measurements within coda types revealed that several coda types were produced by more than one animal. Thus, the codas recorded from these animals represent a shared repertoire, whereby coda production is not limited to a single animal and coda types are shared between individuals within the unit.     

Generation of infrasonic waves by low-frequency dust acoustic perturbations in the Earth’s lower ionosphere

It is shown that, during Perseid, Geminid, Orionid, and Leonid meteor showers, the excitation of low-frequency dust acoustic perturbations by modulational instability in the Earth’s ionosphere can lead to the generation of infrasonic waves. The processes accompanying the propagation of these waves are considered, and the possibility of observing the waves from the Earth’s surface is discussed, as well as the possible onset of acoustic gravitational vortex structures in the region of dust acoustic perturbations. The generation of such structures during Perseid, Geminid, Orionid, and Leonid meteor showers can show up as an increase in the intensity of green nightglow by an amount on the order of 10% and can be attributed to the formation of nonlinear (vortex) structures at altitudes of 110–120 km.     

Can acoustic methods be used to monitor grenadier (Macrouridae) abundance in the Ross Sea region?

Grenadiers Macrourus spp. are the main bycatch species in the exploratory longline fishery for toothfish Dissostichus spp. in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Ongoing monitoring tools are needed to assess stock status of grenadiers in the Ross Sea and to ensure ecological relationships are maintained. There may be potential to use fisheries acoustic methods to obtain estimates of grenadier abundance. Acoustic data collected during New Zealand??s International Polar Year Census of Marine Life survey in February?CMarch 2008 provide evidence that single targets close to the bottom over the Ross Sea slope are grenadiers. The acoustic target strength distribution of single targets was very similar to that predicted based on the measured size range of grenadiers. There are also positive correlations between acoustic backscatter and trawl and longline catches of grenadiers. Key uncertainties of the acoustic method are mark identification away from the bottom, and technical issues with low signal-to-noise ratio at depths greater than 1000 m and the acoustic dead-zone close to the bottom.