Kerri Seger

Kerri Seger
Integral Consulting, Inc. · MSE

PhD in Oceanography
Also CEO of re1 LLC - making silicone suction cups for marine fauna research

About

74
Publications
14,757
Reads
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310
Citations
Additional affiliations
June 2018 - March 2019
University of New Hampshire
Position
  • Professor
May 2016 - May 2018
University of New Hampshire
Position
  • PostDoc Position
August 2003 - June 2007
The Ohio State University
Position
  • Research Assistant

Publications

Publications (74)
Article
Detection and classification of cetacean vocalizations in acoustic datasets play critical roles in understanding the impacts of various human-made sound sources on cetaceans. Knowing migration route locations, feeding success rates, and population densities can help reduce our impacts on their life functions and aids in conservation efforts for the...
Article
The Cold Pool is a subsurface layer with water temperatures below 2 °C that is formed in the eastern Bering Sea. This oceanographic feature of relatively cooler bottom temperature impacts zooplankton and forage fish dynamics, driving different energetic pathways dependent upon Bering Sea climatic regime. Odontocetes echolocate to find prey, so trac...
Article
Vocal behavior can be an indicator of physiological state or genetic make-up, but has not been developed as a diagnostic tool in seabirds. Aptenodytes penguins lack external sexual dimorphism, but the sexes have dimorphic courtship calls. We present a case study in which unique call structure of an emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) was associa...
Article
In the summer of 2021, the US Navy conducted a Full Ship Shock Trial (FSST) for the USS Gerald R. Ford. This involved three large underwater explosions off the coast of Florida, USA. We collected underwater acoustic recordings, using low-sensitivity recorders, for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center to validate their underwater acoustic propagation m...
Article
The “Combining global OBS and CTBTO recordings to estimate abundance and density of fin and blue whales”, or CORTADO project, is using data from two bottom-sensor types to implement a suite of methods for estimating density of fin and blue whales. While previous studies have demonstrated the utility of Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) and Comprehens...
Article
In 2018, the Ports, Humpbacks, y Sound In Colombia (PHySIC) Project began to record soundscapes in the Gulf of Tribugá, Northern Colombian Pacific, for the first time. This was of interest to local conservation groups who were against building a megaport in the native mangrove habitat that provides livelihoods for the people of Chocó. Five years la...
Article
The ONR project “Application of an Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) detection and classification process to environments for Naval monitoring and detection” created empirical and variational mode decomposition analysis workflows to detect and cluster diverse underwater signals across four distinct datasets. Twenty-five call types from the Bering...
Article
The loss of Arctic sea ice is one of the most visible signs of global climate change. As Arctic sea ice has retreated, Arctic marine shipping has increased. The Pan-Arctic's unique underwater acoustic properties mean that even small increases in ship traffic can have a significant effect on the ambient soundscape. This study presents the first long...
Article
Full-text available
This paper describes a publicly available dataset comprising underwater acoustic recordings of large underwater explosions from the US Navy’s Full Ship Shock Trial (FSST) conducted off the coast of Florida, USA in the summer of 2021. The FSST included three controlled detonations. High-intensity sounds of the explosions were captured using fifteen...
Article
Hydrophones are deployed throughout the ocean to perform passive acoustic monitoring. This technique is a powerful tool for marine mammal sound detection due to its advantage of being able to collect data overnight, year-round, and in inclement weather. However, hundreds of terabytes of data produced each year pose a significant challenge for data...
Chapter
Full-text available
Anthropogenic noise has been shown to impair hearing and elicit behavioral changes among marine animals. Humpback whales are known for their complex vocal displays (i.e., song) which can be masked by vessel noise. In the Gulf of Tribugá, a part of the breeding grounds for humpback whale Stock G, a marine port construction project was proposed, and,...
Article
The Cold Pool is a subsurface layer (<2°C) that is formed in the summer from stratification and is characterized by previous winter conditions. This bottom layer of relatively cooler temperatures impacts zooplankton dynamics, driving two different energetic pathways. The cold regime pathway favors larger zooplankton species, which increases forage...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT One of the earliest and clearest signals of the impact of anthropogenic induced climate change has been the severe reduction in sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean, particularly in the summer. Predictions of an ice free summer range from 2030 to 2050. The reduction of ice extent and thickness opens the possibility for great...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT During Full Ship Shock Trials (FSSTs), a ship is subjected to a series of underwater detonations conducted at various distances to assess its ability to withstand shock waves that simulate near misses during combat. In the summer of 2021, the US Navy successfully conducted a FSST of the USS Gerald R. Ford, in the Atlantic...
Article
Full-text available
A characteristic feature of the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) is a subsurface layer linked to seasonal sea ice (SSI) and defined by bottom temperatures less than 2 °C, which is termed the cold pool. Cold pool variability is directly tied to regional zooplankton and fish dynamics. Multifrequency (200 and 460 kHz) acoustic backscatter data were collected...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT Canada, the United States, and the World Wildlife Fund are co-sponsoring ongoing work in the Arctic Council’s Protection for the Marine Environment Working Group to evaluate shipping noise in the Arctic region. Applied Ocean Sciences has used ship tracking and sea ice data to model the region’s underwater soundscape to imp...
Article
Full-text available
Tracking species with expanding ranges is crucial to conservation efforts and some typically temperate marine species are spreading northward into the Arctic Ocean. Risso’s (Gg) and Pacific white-sided (Lo) dolphins have been documented spreading poleward. Further, they make very similar sounds, so it is difficult for both human analysts and classi...
Article
Full-text available
The responses of marine organisms to changes in their environments can be studied using a variety of methods. Captive studies are highly controlled approaches that measure one or more parameters of interest in an enclosed area. Sample sizes are usually small, but experimental design and measurement methods are more controllable than in natural envi...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT Anthropogenic noise compromises the effectiveness of communication in marine animals. This can interfere with natural auditory signal processing (for example, “masking”). Some animals have been shown to change the frequencies of their vocalizations to avoid masking. Humpback whales produce songs with low fundamental freque...
Article
Full-text available
No PDF available ABSTRACT Tracking marine species is critical for conversation efforts, therefore automatic detectors and classifiers play a significant role to facilitate such efforts. Previous work demonstrated the efficacy of the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) classification capabilities in differentiating marine mammal vocalizations. Howeve...
Preprint
Full-text available
Climate change affects the distributions of marine mammals1, and some temperate water species are spreading northward into the Arctic Ocean2, 3. Tracking expanding species is crucial to conservation efforts and using automatic detectors and classifiers to track the locations of their vocalizations could help. Risso’s (Gg) and Pacific white-sided (L...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Following publication of the State of Knowledge report, in 2019, PAME embarked on new work to map, for the first time, underwater noise from shipping across the whole Arctic Ocean. This was as complex task – there are many gaps in our knowledge about how sound travels in the Arctic’s cold, ice covered waters, and few locations in the Arctic where...
Article
Full-text available
Soundscapes with minimal anthropogenic noise sources are key for the survival and effective communication of marine mammals. The Gulf of Tribugá is part of the breeding ground for humpback whale Stock G. Currently, no large-scale infrastructure exists on the Gulf's coastline, making it an area with high biodiversity and little anthropogenic noise....
Article
Full-text available
As Arctic seas rapidly change with increased ocean temperatures and decreased sea ice extent, traditional Arctic marine mammal distributions may be altered, and typically temperate marine mammal species may shift poleward. Extant and seasonal odontocete species on the continental shelves of the Bering and Chukchi Seas include killer whales (Orcinus...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT Tonal signals are useful in behavioral studies as they often represent the building blocks of more complex vocalizations. Their simple structure can be indicative of fundamental processes such as resonant chamber size. Repetitive tones produced by the humpback whales from the Colombian breeding ground are not easily catego...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT The vocal repertoire of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) consist of long and complex songs and social calls. Songs are characterized by their cyclical and predictable structure in form of units, phrases, and themes. On the contrary, social calls are less predictable and generally short bursts of vocalizations that...
Article
Full-text available
No PDF available ABSTRACT Risso's and Pacific white-sided dolphins occupy similar habitats and have been acoustically documented in northward habitat expansion above the Aleutian archipelago. Therefore, being able to differentiate between the two, either more easily during manual analysis or through automation, is important to track their distribut...
Article
Full-text available
No PDF available ABSTRACT Noise in marine ecosystems has increased significantly in the last decades. One of the most significant sources is vessel traffic. This affects animals that depend on sound to interact within their ecosystems, like interrupting communication which could lead to adaptive strategies to avoid the noise. We recorded the sounds...
Poster
Full-text available
Humpback whales annually migrate to Colombian waters to mate and give birth. The acoustic communication system of the humpback whale relies on an individual’s ability to establish and maintain contact with conspecifics across vast and proximate distances. Current levels of tourism and artisanal fishing activities that support the livelihood of loca...
Poster
Full-text available
A baseline description of the sound types and cycles in the humpback whale breeding ground of the Gulf of Tribuga, Pacific Coast Colombia
Poster
Full-text available
Botero, N., I.C. Avila, K. Seger, C. Perazio, D. Barragán & N. Farias. 2019. Golfo de tribugá‚ Colombia: área importante para las ballenas jorobadas. (Tribugá Gulf ‚Colombia: important area for humpback whales). Pp. 91-92 en Memorias del XVIII Seminario Nacional de Ciencias y Tecnologías del Mar – SENALMAR, Barranquilla, Colombia. 22-25 October 201...
Article
No PDF available ABSTRACT Pile driving for the installation of wind farms has become a recent topic of interest as we seek to learn how to protect the marine environment while energy efficient offshore turbines are installed. For environmental compliance, propagation models for spreading from a point source are sometimes used to evaluate impact vol...
Article
Full-text available
No PDF available ABSTRACT To monitor potential changes in the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) singing cycle, typical singing intensities, and acoustic behaviors requires a baseline understanding of singing activity in the context of an acoustic environment that is minimally disturbed. The Gulf of Tribugá in the Colombian Pacific (the breedi...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract On their tropical breeding grounds humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce an array of social behaviors. The most commonly reported behaviors are surface active displays, which include tail, pectoral, or full body slapping events (Kavanagh et al., 2017). Social interactions also comprise a diverse range of sub-surface behaviors th...
Article
Full-text available
The Gulf of Tribugá in the Colombian Pacific is still relatively undisturbed. No road access between villages nor from major urban areas exists. Small boats and walking beaches at low tide serve as the main transportation conduits. In this breeding ground for humpback whale Stock G, small-scale artisanal and shrimp fisheries and whale-watching acti...
Article
Full-text available
Detecting marine mammal vocalizations in underwater acoustic environments and classifying them to species level is typically an arduous manual analysis task for skilled bioacousticians. In recent years, machine learning and other automated algorithms have been explored for quickly detecting and classifying all sound sources in an ambient acoustic e...
Article
Full-text available
As Arctic seas rapidly change with increased ocean temperatures and decreased sea ice extent, traditional marine mammal distributions may be altered, and non-traditional Arctic species may shift poleward. Extant and seasonal continental shelf odontocete species in the Arctic Ocean include sperm whales, killer whales, beluga whales, delphinids, harb...
Article
Full-text available
Acoustic methods are an established technique to monitor marine mammal populations and behavior, but developments in computer science can expand the current capabilities. A central aim of these methods is the automated detection and classification of marine mammal vocalizations. While many studies have applied bioacoustic methods to cetacean calls,...
Article
Full-text available
The irregular appearance of planktonic algae blooms off the coast of southern California has been a source of wonder for over a century. Although large algal blooms can have significant negative impacts on ecosystems and human health, a predictive understanding of these events has eluded science, and many have come to regard them as ultimately rand...
Article
Automated and manual acoustic localizations of migrating bowhead whales were used to estimate source level and calling depth distributions of their frequency-modulated-modulated calls over seven years between 2008 and 2014. Whale positions were initially triangulated using directional autonomous seafloor acoustic recorders, deployed between 25 and...
Presentation
Full-text available
Humpback whales produce a large variety of diverse sounds beyond their well-known songs. Mothers, calves, and non-breeding whales may use these “social sounds” to maintain group cohesion, facilitate feeding, and/or increase a calf’s safety. To date, social sounds have been studied off Hawaii, Alaska, and Australia. During the 2014-2015 breeding sea...
Article
As the Arctic seas rapidly change with increased ocean temperatures and decreased sea ice extent, traditional Arctic marine mammal distributions will be altered, and non-traditionally Arctic species may shift poleward. Arctic species typically include sperm, bowhead, humpback, right, gray, fin, and blue whales; odontocetes, specifically killer and...
Article
Full-text available
Baleen whale vocal activity can be the dominant underwater ambient noise source for certain locations and seasons. Previous wind-driven ambient-noise formulations have been adjusted to model ambient noise levels generated by random distributions of singing humpback whales in ocean waveguides and have been combined to a single model. This theoretica...
Article
In passive acoustic monitoring, source localization using multipath propagation can be challenging whenever the source-receiver configuration leads to unresolved paths. Here, we propose a single-hydrophone method to estimate the range of a source based on two steps. First, we define a time deformation operator (e.g., Bonnel et al. 2014) to estimate...
Article
Full-text available
Previous research has investigated whether diffuse ambient noise levels can be used to estimate relative baleen whale abundance in environments where their vocal activity dominates ambient noise levels. Presented here is an analytical model of ambient noise levels as generated by randomly distributed singing humpback whales. The model exploits earl...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
As Arctic seas rapidly change with increased ocean temperatures and decreased sea ice extent, traditional marine mammal distributions may be altered, and non-traditional Arctic species may shift poleward. Extant and seasonally Arctic species include bowhead, humpback, right, gray, fin, minke, and blue whales; odontocetes, specifically killer (Oo),...
Research
Full-text available
Previous research has investigated whether diffuse ambient noise levels can be used to estimate relative baleen whale abundance in environments where the whales’ vocal activity dominates ambient noise levels. Presented here is an analytical model of ambient noise levels as generated by random distributions of singing humpback whales. The model expl...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Bioacoustics research on the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) has focused more heavily on their song rather than on their social calls. The biogeographic variation in song structure between distinct humpback whale populations has been well documented, but such variations in social call acoustic features are largely unknown. There are current...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Over seven seasons (2007 to 2014) Greeneridge Sciences, Inc., deployed passive acoustic recorders (DASARs) between August and October at five sites in the Beaufort Sea off the Alaskan North Slope to collect acoustic data during the fall bowhead whale migration. Each site consisted of 7–11 DASARs, arranged in triangular grids with 7 km spacing betwe...
Article
Full-text available
Each winter gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) breed and calve in Laguna San Ignacio, Mexico, where a robust, yet regulated, whale-watching industry exists. Baseline acoustic environments in LSI's three zones were monitored between 2008 and 2013, in anticipation of a new road being paved that will potentially increase tourist activity to this rela...
Article
Full-text available
Over seven seasons (2007 to 2014) Greeneridge Sciences, Inc., deployed passive acoustic recorders (DASARs) between August and October at five sites in the Beaufort Sea off the Alaskan North Slope to collect acoustic data during the fall bowhead whale migration. Each site consisted of 7–11 DASARs, arranged in triangular grids with 7 km spacing betwe...
Article
In each of the past seven years, at least 35 Directional Autonomous Seafloor Acoustic Recorders (DASARs) have been deployed over a 280 km swath of the Beaufort Sea continental shelf (20–55 m depth) during the open-water season to monitor the westward bowhead whale migration. DASARs have one omnidirectional pressure sensor and two orthogonal particl...
Poster
Full-text available
Humpback whale song is one of the most widely known acoustic behaviors in the marine ecosystem (Payne & McVay, 1971). Its biological function is still debated, but one postulation is that male humpback whale song serves in nighttime aural territory defense or mating advertisement when visual cues are not possible (Au et al., 2000). Song occurs on a...
Article
Full-text available
Previous research has speculated that diffuse ambient noise levels can be used to estimate relative cetacean abundance in certain locations when baleen whale vocal activity dominates the soundscape (Au et al., 2000; Mellinger et al., 2009). During the 2013 and 2014 humpback whale breeding seasons off Los Cabos, Mexico, visual point and line transec...
Article
Full-text available
Each winter gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) breed and calve in Laguna San Ignacio, with the lagoon's northern section more heavily used by mothers rearing calves. The southern section of the lagoon is open to milling and ecotourism traffic, while the northern section is restricted to vessel transits only. Ambient acoustic data from autonomous u...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Marine sanctuaries and national parks are interested in acoustic monitoring of vessel activity, in order to enforce regulations and to determine whether anthropogenic noise alters wildlife communication behavior. Thus, some project goals include (1) determining whether anthropogenic noise contributes significantly more than natural noise to acousti...
Article
Full-text available
We examined the extent to which acoustic noise in urban environments influences song characteristics and singing behaviour of Northern Cardinals Cardinalis cardinalis and American Robins Turdus migratorius. We predicted that, in response to loud noise, birds would improve signal transmission by (1) increasing singing rate and (2) adjusting song cha...
Article
Full-text available
Abstract: Song is a defining characteristic in avian communication systems because of its role in mate attraction, territory establishment, territory defense, and habitat selection. Therefore, biologists are increasingly concerned about potential behavioral and reproductive consequences of anthropogenic noise as it creates novel acoustic environmen...

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