News Finding: "Humpback whales seemed to stop singing temporarily rather than modifying sound characteristics of their song under the noise, generated by a passenger-cargo liner," the authors of the PLOS ONE paper said in a statement.
Paper Finding: Increases in ship noise, both within and below the dolphins' call bandwidth, resulted in higher dolphin whistle frequencies and a reduction in whistle contour complexity, an acoustic feature associated with individual identification.
News Context: But it's clear that the sounds are changing behaviors, the authors said. "Humpback whales seemed to stop singing temporarily rather than modifying sound characteristics of their song under the noise, generated by a passenger-cargo liner," the authors of the PLOS ONE paper said in a statement. "Ceasing vocalization and moving away could be cost-effective adaptations to the fast-moving noise source."
Paper Context: Elevated ambient noise levels were mainly caused by ship noise. Increases in ship noise, both within and below the dolphins' call bandwidth, resulted in higher dolphin whistle frequencies and a reduction in whistle contour complexity, an acoustic feature associated with individual identification. Consequently, the noiseinduced simplification of dolphin whistles may reduce the information content in these acoustic signals and decrease effective communication, parent -offspring proximity or group cohesion.