ALBERT

Description: © The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Wei, C., Hoffmann-Kuhnt, M., Au, W. W. L., Ho, A. Z. H., Matrai, E., Feng, W., Ketten, D. R., & Zhang, Y. Possible limitations of dolphin echolocation: a simulation study based on a cross-modal matching experiment. Scientific Reports, 11(1), (2021): 6689, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85063-2.

Description: Dolphins use their biosonar to discriminate objects with different features through the returning echoes. Cross-modal matching experiments were conducted with a resident bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus). Four types of objects composed of different materials (water-filled PVC pipes, air-filled PVC pipes, foam ball arrays, and PVC pipes wrapped in closed-cell foam) were used in the experiments, respectively. The size and position of the objects remained the same in each case. The data collected in the experiment showed that the dolphin’s matching accuracy was significantly different across the cases. To gain insight into the underlying mechanism in the experiments, we used finite element methods to construct two-dimensional target detection models of an echolocating dolphin in the vertical plane, based on computed tomography scan data. The acoustic processes of the click’s interaction with the objects and the surrounding media in the four cases were simulated and compared. The simulation results provide some possible explanations for why the dolphin performed differently when discriminating the objects that only differed in material composition in the previous matching experiments.

Description: One of the authors, Wei. C is supported by a Forrest Research Foundation Fellowship. Support for D. Ketten for this effort was provided by the Joint Industry Programme and by the Helmholtz Foundation. This work was also supported by the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) contribution No. 1630 and School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) contribution No. 9452.

Description: © The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Earth System Science Data 11(3), (2019): 1037-1068, doi: 10.5194/essd-11-1037-2019.

Description: A global compilation of in situ data is useful to evaluate the quality of ocean-colour satellite data records. Here we describe the data compiled for the validation of the ocean-colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI). The data were acquired from several sources (including, inter alia, MOBY, BOUSSOLE, AERONET-OC, SeaBASS, NOMAD, MERMAID, AMT, ICES, HOT and GeP&CO) and span the period from 1997 to 2018. Observations of the following variables were compiled: spectral remote-sensing reflectances, concentrations of chlorophyll a, spectral inherent optical properties, spectral diffuse attenuation coefficients and total suspended matter. The data were from multi-project archives acquired via open internet services or from individual projects, acquired directly from data providers. Methodologies were implemented for homogenization, quality control and merging of all data. No changes were made to the original data, other than averaging of observations that were close in time and space, elimination of some points after quality control and conversion to a standard format. The final result is a merged table designed for validation of satellite-derived ocean-colour products and available in text format. Metadata of each in situ measurement (original source, cruise or experiment, principal investigator) was propagated throughout the work and made available in the final table. By making the metadata available, provenance is better documented, and it is also possible to analyse each set of data separately. This paper also describes the changes that were made to the compilation in relation to the previous version (Valente et al., 2016). The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.898188 (Valente et al., 2019).

Description: This research has been supported by the ESA Climate Change Initiative – Ocean Colour project (ref: AO-1/6207/09/I-LG).