title: Spatial and temporal characteristics of the underwater soundscape around the Motiti Protection Area: Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island

authors: Riegel, Maria Sophie

subjects: Underwater Soundscapes

abstract: Marine ecosystems around the world have been impacted by degradation and loss of biodiversity as a result of human impacts and climate change. The monitoring and management of ecologically significant areas is vital in understanding the effects of habitat degradation on marine ecosystems. Traditional monitoring methods are often expensive, time consuming, labour intensive and invasive. Soundscapes offer a unique opportunity for monitoring habitats in a way that is cost effective, minimally invasive and efficient. The aim of this study was to use passive acoustic monitoring to create a baseline data set using ambient sound data to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in ambient sound pressure levels, and to identify biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic sound sources which make up the marine soundscapes at the Motiti Island and Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef. Five diverse and ecologically significant sites in the Motiti Protection Area – at Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand were selected and monitored over the course of a year. This provided a wide variety of data to show the diel, lunar and seasonal patterns and trends in acoustic biological activity in order to represent the ecosystems accurately. The results showed that all sites showed strong diel patterns, with a sound pressure level increase of ~6-10dB during daylight hours compared to dark hours, and evident peaks during dawn and dusk hours as a result of biological choruses composed largely of sea urchins. There were also strong seasonal trends among the five sites, with Summer having the overall highest sound pressure level compared to Spring, Autumn and Winter, this also had an effect on the peaks in dusk choruses, which were also found to be highest during Summer. Lunar phases were also found to have an impact on the sound pressure levels of all five sites, with increased sound pressure levels during the new moon, compared to sound pressure levels during the full moon. This study created a baseline data set for a culturally, ecologically, and economically valuable area. Passive acoustic monitoring was found to be an incredibly useful tool in understand the ecosystems health and biological condition, and offers an alternative to traditional monitoring which is an effective, minimally invasive, and less labour intensive way of monitoring marine ecosystems.

text: Spatial and temporal characteristics of the underwater soundscape around the Motiti Protection Area: Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island Marine ecosystems around the world have been impacted by degradation and loss of biodiversity as a result of human impacts and climate change. The monitoring and management of ecologically significant areas is vital in understanding the effects of habitat degradation on marine ecosystems. Traditional monitoring methods are often expensive, time consuming, labour intensive and invasive. Soundscapes offer a unique opportunity for monitoring habitats in a way that is cost effective, minimally invasive and efficient. The aim of this study was to use passive acoustic monitoring to create a baseline data set using ambient sound data to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in ambient sound pressure levels, and to identify biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic sound sources which make up the marine soundscapes at the Motiti Island and Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef. Five diverse and ecologically significant sites in the Motiti Protection Area – at Ōtaiti/Astrolabe Reef and Motiti Island, in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand were selected and monitored over the course of a year. This provided a wide variety of data to show the diel, lunar and seasonal patterns and trends in acoustic biological activity in order to represent the ecosystems accurately. The results showed that all sites showed strong diel patterns, with a sound pressure level increase of ~6-10dB during daylight hours compared to dark hours, and evident peaks during dawn and dusk hours as a result of biological choruses composed largely of sea urchins. There were also strong seasonal trends among the five sites, with Summer having the overall highest sound pressure level compared to Spring, Autumn and Winter, this also had an effect on the peaks in dusk choruses, which were also found to be highest during Summer. Lunar phases were also found to have an impact on the sound pressure levels of all five sites, with increased sound pressure levels during the new moon, compared to sound pressure levels during the full moon. This study created a baseline data set for a culturally, ecologically, and economically valuable area. Passive acoustic monitoring was found to be an incredibly useful tool in understand the ecosystems health and biological condition, and offers an alternative to traditional monitoring which is an effective, minimally invasive, and less labour intensive way of monitoring marine ecosystems.

year: 2022

title: Personality and Representation in Environmental Law

authors: Daya-Winterbottom, Trevor

abstract: Jorge Vinuales from the University of Cambridge observed in his working paper on “Law and the Anthropocene” that law is founded on a series of core concepts, such as, “legal personality, representation, obligation, debt, causality or damage” (CEENRG Working Papers 2016- 4, page 49). This led him to note that a “significant problem” faced by environmental law is how to flesh out these core concepts in relation to the protection of the environment (page 53). For example, should we regard natural resources (e.g. rivers or mountains) as “subjects” of environmental law with their “own interests and capacity to act (through representation)”, or merely as the “objects” of environmental law – to be protected either “directly” as specific natural resources, or “indirectly” via the protection of the environment generally (page 53). This article interrogates these perspectives by reference to recent New Zealand developments.

text: Personality and Representation in Environmental Law Jorge Vinuales from the University of Cambridge observed in his working paper on “Law and the Anthropocene” that law is founded on a series of core concepts, such as, “legal personality, representation, obligation, debt, causality or damage” (CEENRG Working Papers 2016- 4, page 49). This led him to note that a “significant problem” faced by environmental law is how to flesh out these core concepts in relation to the protection of the environment (page 53). For example, should we regard natural resources (e.g. rivers or mountains) as “subjects” of environmental law with their “own interests and capacity to act (through representation)”, or merely as the “objects” of environmental law – to be protected either “directly” as specific natural resources, or “indirectly” via the protection of the environment generally (page 53). This article interrogates these perspectives by reference to recent New Zealand developments.

year: 2018-02-06

title: On science, ecology and environmentalism

authors: Tulloch, Lynley

subjects: ecological science

abstract: Using ecological science as a backdrop for this discussion, the author applies Michel Foucault’s historical genealogical strategy to an analysis of the processes through which sustainable development (SD) gained hegemonic acceptance in the West. She analyses some of the ideological mutations that have seen SD emerge from an environmentalist ideology based on ecological science to that of a mainstream market-oriented ideology for global economic development. This involves canvassing the voices of early environmental authors and ecologists, whose ideas such as ‘carrying capacity’, ‘limits to growth’ and ‘finite resources’ have been co-opted by the ‘sustainable development’ movement. It is argued that a discursive political and philosophical conservatism has muted the potential for a truly radical ecological approach.

text: On science, ecology and environmentalism Using ecological science as a backdrop for this discussion, the author applies Michel Foucault’s historical genealogical strategy to an analysis of the processes through which sustainable development (SD) gained hegemonic acceptance in the West. She analyses some of the ideological mutations that have seen SD emerge from an environmentalist ideology based on ecological science to that of a mainstream market-oriented ideology for global economic development. This involves canvassing the voices of early environmental authors and ecologists, whose ideas such as ‘carrying capacity’, ‘limits to growth’ and ‘finite resources’ have been co-opted by the ‘sustainable development’ movement. It is argued that a discursive political and philosophical conservatism has muted the potential for a truly radical ecological approach.

year: 2013