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Advances in Ecological Modelling of Marine Mammal Habitats of Importance
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Advances in Ecological Modelling of Marine Mammal Habitats of Importance

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Biology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 3219

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Michael Tetley

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Joint SSC/WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (MMPATF), International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland
2. National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Trust, Scotland Programme, London, UK
Interests: ecological modelling; marine mammal habitats; conservation areas; spatial mapping; marine protected areas

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue highlights new advances in ecological modelling methodologies that provide improved insights into the mapping of marine mammal habitats, crucial to the protection and recovery of vulnerable marine mammal species and populations and essential for identifying future priority conservation areas, such as Ecologically and Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs), Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), and Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs). These advancements address the urgent need for precise habitat identification to bolster conservation efforts, ensuring the protection and sustainability of marine mammal populations while enhancing the identification and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in both coastal and high-sea environments. By improving our understanding of marine mammal distributions and their ecological requirements, this research plays a pivotal role in informing policy decision making and guiding effective management strategies, ultimately contributing to global marine biodiversity conservation objectives.

Dr. Michael Tetley
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ecological modelling
  • marine mammal habitats
  • conservation areas
  • spatial mapping
  • marine protected areas

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 3869 KiB  
Article
Sea Ice as a Driver of Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) 20 Hz Acoustic Presence in Eastern Antarctic Waters
by Meghan G. Aulich, Agustin M. De Wysiecki, Brian S. Miller, Flore Samaran, Robert D. McCauley, Benjamin J. Saunders, Cristina D. S. Tollefsen and Christine Erbe
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13(6), 1171; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13061171 - 14 Jun 2025
Viewed by 657
Abstract
The environmental drivers of fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) acoustic presence in Eastern Antarctic waters were investigated based on passive acoustic recordings from four sites, 2013–2019. Fin whale 20 Hz pulses were detected from late austral summer to early winter. Daily values [...] Read more.
The environmental drivers of fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) acoustic presence in Eastern Antarctic waters were investigated based on passive acoustic recordings from four sites, 2013–2019. Fin whale 20 Hz pulses were detected from late austral summer to early winter. Daily values of sea-ice concentration (SIC) were compared with the number of days with fin whale 20 Hz acoustic presence using a generalized additive model approach. At the Southern Kerguelen Plateau, Casey, and Dumont d’Urville sites, SIC correlated with fin whale calling activity, but less so at the Prydz site. Changes in SIC between sites resulted in variation in acoustic presence: Earlier sea-ice formation at Dumont d’Urville resulted in less acoustic presence in comparison to the Southern Kerguelen Plateau, where sea ice formed later in the season. Interannual variability in SIC impacted yearly acoustic presence, with a later onset of high SIC resulting in greater acoustic presence and later departure (migration timing) of the animals. Identifying the environmental drivers of fin whale presence is key to informing how this migratory species may be affected by environmental variability resulting from climate change. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ecological Modelling of Marine Mammal Habitats of Importance)
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16 pages, 3560 KiB  
Article
Year-Round Acoustic Presence of Beaked Whales (Ziphiidae) Far Offshore off Australia’s Northwest Shelf
by Evgenii Sidenko, Iain Parnum, Alexander Gavrilov, Robert McCauley and Christine Erbe
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13(5), 927; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13050927 - 8 May 2025
Viewed by 972
Abstract
Beaked whales are a cryptic pelagic species, rarely sighted at sea. In a ~2.5-year passive acoustic monitoring program on Australia’s Northwest Shelf, a variety of marine mammal sounds were detected, including beaked whale (Ziphiidae) clicks. An automatic detection routine for beaked whale clicks [...] Read more.
Beaked whales are a cryptic pelagic species, rarely sighted at sea. In a ~2.5-year passive acoustic monitoring program on Australia’s Northwest Shelf, a variety of marine mammal sounds were detected, including beaked whale (Ziphiidae) clicks. An automatic detection routine for beaked whale clicks was developed, tested, and run on these recordings. The detection workflow included: (1) the extraction of impulsive signals from passive acoustic recordings based on an auto-regression model, (2) the calculation of a set of features of extracted signals, and (3) binary signal classification based on these features. Detector performance (Precision, Recall, and F1-score) was assessed using a manually annotated dataset of extracted clicks. This automated routine allows for quick analysis of animal (acoustic) presence and distribution spatially and temporally. In our study, beaked whales were present all year round at six deep-water (>1000 m) sites, but no clicks were detected at the shallow-water (~70 m) site. No seasonal or diurnal patterns of beaked whale clicks were identified. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ecological Modelling of Marine Mammal Habitats of Importance)
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