| Project leader: | Prof. Prof. h. c. Dr Ursula Siebert |
|---|---|
| Scientific work: | Dr. Benno Wölfing |
| Project term: | June 2015 until January 2019 |
| Sponsorship: | German Environment Agency (UBA) |
| Cooperation partners: |
DW-ShipConsult, Germany Curtin University, Australia University Iceland |
In Antarctica, high sound energy air guns are regularly used for seismic measurement methods. This sound energy may spread long distances and have the potential to considerably disturb marine organisms. If biologically important environmental sounds or intraspecific communication signals are "masked", the organism’s perception, foraging or intraspecific communication may be affected.
The aim of this project is to determine the extent of the negative effects of the anthropogenic underwater sounds by isolating them. For this purpose, the reduction of the communication range during the use of air guns for low and high frequency communication in Antarctic marine mammals will be modeled. Based on the modeling, criteria for estimating the masking potential of anthropogenic impulsive underwater noise will be developed.
