[MARMAM] New paper on acoustic divergence between bottlenose dolphin whistles

[Elena Papale]

Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of my co-authors, I would like to announce the publication of 
a new paper:
"Acoustic divergence between bottlenose dolphin whistles from the 
Central–Eastern North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea"

E. Papale,  M. Azzolin, I. Cascão, A. Gannier, M. O. Lammers, V. M. 
Martin, J. Oswald, M. Perez-Gil, R. Prieto, M. A. Silva, C. Giacoma.

acta ethologica
DOI 10.1007/s10211-013-0172-2


Abstract
To improve our understanding of the complex genetic and ecological 
structure of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus ) populations, we 
examined the acoustic features of communication signals from two 
geographically contiguous areas: the Central–Eastern North Atlantic and 
the Mediterranean Sea. Variations in the whistles were evaluated for 
four locations. Ten signal parameters were measured and used to 
statistically differentiate between the areas. Over 79% of sightings 
were correctly classified by discriminant function analysis, confirming 
an acoustic differentiation between the two basins. The results of 
cluster analysis using the mean values of the parameters for each 
sighting showed that the three easternmost sightings from the 
Mediterranean and one sighting from the Canary archipelago formed a 
separate cluster from the rest of the Atlantic. The two sightings from 
the Alboran Sea in the west Mediterranean were grouped with the Atlantic 
recordings. There was more variability in whistles from the Atlantic 
Ocean consistent with data from genetic and photo-identification studies 
that document resident and non-resident animals in the area. The results 
suggest that the Alboran area may be inhabited by animals differentiated 
from the rest of the Mediterranean basin as a result of habitat 
features.

The full article can be found online at:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10211-013-0172-2


Please contact me if you do not have access to the article
(elena.papale at unito.it)

Best,
Elena


-- 
Elena Papale, PhD
Department of Life Science and Systems Biology
University of Torino,
Via Accademia Albertina 13,
10123 Torino
Italy