Adapting Small Unmanned Aerial Systems for Behavioral Research with Coastal Marine Mammals

Marine mammals inhabit aquatic worlds where their subsurface behavior, cryptic surface profiles, and movements make them difficult to study. New tools are needed to study coastal marine mammals in a world increasing impacted by climate change related shifts in weather and animal distribution patterns. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are important remote-sensing tools for studying a range of wildlife including terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna. These systems offer flexible platforms for adding sensor packages needed for different applications, for example, most are equipped with high-resolution cameras and GPS sensors. The vantage point from an aerial platform dramatically improves the ability to directly observe marine mammal behavior. However, to date, there are no studies using small UAS to investigate the behavior of coastal marine mammals, in particular, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the Endangered Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus). The conservation and management of marine mammals can be resource-intensive and challenging, often resulting in a lack of important contextual information on the abundance, distribution, and threats faced by local populations. Fine-scale quantitative information on the importance of different habitats to dolphin populations is often lacking because animals spend most of their time underwater requiring inferences from surface behaviors to determine their activity. Small multirotor UAS offer low-cost systems that can be effectively used to observe animal behavior at the surface and subsurface several meters down. In the shallow, clear waters of the Caribbean coast of Central America, these systems should enable researchers to directly track dolphins and manatees underwater. However, the efficacy of small UAS for tracking these species and gathering crucial information on their presence and activity has not yet been examined.The overarching goal of my dissertation is to: 1) develop methodology for using small UAS to study the behavioral ecology of free-ranging coastal marine mammals; 2) use UAS-derived data to test hypotheses regarding bottlenose dolphin habitat use and behavior in an offshore marine reserve; and 3) use the findings of our study to make key recommendations on regulations governing protections for marine mammals. The methodology developed in these studies will facilitate the development of UAS-studies for marine mammals

Emerging science for sustainable water resource management: a guide for water professionals and practitioners in India

This book brings together new and innovative research and technical advancements arising from research conducted by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) in collaboration with a number of different partners across India. The book aims to provide evidence for why and how emerging science can support sustainable management and use of water resources. It draws from the work of hydrologists, freshwater ecologists, water chemists and other experts who share the emerging science in their area of expertise. Examples of how and why this science shows promise for future applications to water management are given, particularly in an Indian context

Science-based restoration monitoring of coastal habitats, Volume Two: Tools for monitoring coastal habitats

Healthy coastal habitats are not only important ecologically; they also support healthy coastal communities and improve the quality of people’s lives. Despite their many benefits and values, coastal habitats have been systematically modified, degraded, and destroyed throughout the United States and its protectorates beginning with European colonization in the 1600’s (Dahl 1990). As a result, many coastal habitats around the United States are in desperate need of restoration. The monitoring of restoration projects, the focus of this document, is necessary to ensure that restoration efforts are successful, to further the science, and to increase the efficiency of future restoration efforts

Exploring Animal Behavior Through Sound: Volume 1

This open-access book empowers its readers to explore the acoustic world of animals. By listening to the sounds of nature, we can study animal behavior, distribution, and demographics; their habitat characteristics and needs; and the effects of noise. Sound recording is an efficient and affordable tool, independent of daylight and weather; and recorders may be left in place for many months at a time, continuously collecting data on animals and their environment. This book builds the skills and knowledge necessary to collect and interpret acoustic data from terrestrial and marine environments. Beginning with a history of sound recording, the chapters provide an overview of off-the-shelf recording equipment and analysis tools (including automated signal detectors and statistical methods); audiometric methods; acoustic terminology, quantities, and units; sound propagation in air and under water; soundscapes of terrestrial and marine habitats; animal acoustic and vibrational communication; echolocation; and the effects of noise. This book will be useful to students and researchers of animal ecology who wish to add acoustics to their toolbox, as well as to environmental managers in industry and government

Exploring Animal Behavior Through Sound: Volume 1

This open-access book empowers its readers to explore the acoustic world of animals. By listening to the sounds of nature, we can study animal behavior, distribution, and demographics; their habitat characteristics and needs; and the effects of noise. Sound recording is an efficient and affordable tool, independent of daylight and weather; and recorders may be left in place for many months at a time, continuously collecting data on animals and their environment. This book builds the skills and knowledge necessary to collect and interpret acoustic data from terrestrial and marine environments. Beginning with a history of sound recording, the chapters provide an overview of off-the-shelf recording equipment and analysis tools (including automated signal detectors and statistical methods); audiometric methods; acoustic terminology, quantities, and units; sound propagation in air and under water; soundscapes of terrestrial and marine habitats; animal acoustic and vibrational communication; echolocation; and the effects of noise. This book will be useful to students and researchers of animal ecology who wish to add acoustics to their toolbox, as well as to environmental managers in industry and government

The rapid rise of next-generation natural history

Many ecologists have lamented the demise of natural history and have attributed this decline to a misguided view that natural history is outdated and unscientific. Although there is a perception that the focus in ecology and conservation have shifted away from descriptive natural history research and training toward hypothetico-deductive research, we argue that natural history has entered a new phase that we call “next-generation natural history.” This renaissance of natural history is characterized by technological and statistical advances that aid in collecting detailed observations systematically over broad spatial and temporal extents. The technological advances that have increased exponentially in the last decade include electronic sensors such as camera-traps and acoustic recorders, aircraft- and satellite-based remote sensing, animal-borne biologgers, genetics and genomics methods, and community science programs. Advances in statistics and computation have aided in analyzing a growing quantity of observations to reveal patterns in nature. These robust next-generation natural history datasets have transformed the anecdotal perception of natural history observations into systematically collected observations that collectively constitute the foundation for hypothetico-deductive research and can be leveraged and applied to conservation and management. These advances are encouraging scientists to conduct and embrace detailed descriptions of nature that remain a critically important component of the scientific endeavor. Finally, these next-generation natural history observations are engaging scientists and non-scientists alike with new documentations of the wonders of nature. Thus, we celebrate next-generation natural history for encouraging people to experience nature directly