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Categorizing shallow marine soundscapes using explained clusters
Parcerisas, C.; Roca, I.T.; Botteldooren, D.; Devos, P.; Debusschere, E. (2023). Categorizing shallow marine soundscapes using explained clusters. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 11(3): 550. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jmse11030550
In: Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. MDPI: Basel. ISSN 2077-1312; e-ISSN 2077-1312, more
Related to:
Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) (2024). Multipurpose seabed moorings: Developed for coastal dynamic seas. Oceanography Suppl. : In prep., more
Peer reviewed article  

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Keyword
    Marine/Coastal
Author keywords
    eco-acoustics; interpretable machine learning; marine soundscape; Random Forest; shallow water; SHAP; UMAP; XAI

Project Top | Authors | Datasets 
  • Marine Soundscapes in Shallow Water: Automated Tools for Characterization and Analysis, more

Authors  Top | Datasets 
  • Parcerisas, C., more
  • Roca, I.T.
  • Botteldooren, D., more

Abstract
    Natural marine soundscapes are being threatened by increasing anthropic noise, particularly in shallow coastal waters. To preserve and monitor these soundscapes, understanding them is essential. Here, we propose a new method for semi-supervised categorization of shallow marine soundscapes, with further interpretation of these categories according to concurrent environmental conditions. The proposed methodology uses a nonlinear mapping of short-term spectrograms to a two-dimensional space, followed by a density-based clustering algorithm to identify similar sound environments. A random forest classifier, based on additional environmental data, is used to predict their occurrence. Finally, explainable machine learning tools provide insight into the ecological explanation of the clusters. This methodology was tested in the Belgian part of the North Sea, and resulted in clearly identifiable categories of soundscapes that could be explained by spatial and temporal environmental parameters, such as distance to the shore, bathymetry, tide or season. Classifying soundscapes facilitates their identification, which can be useful for policy making or conservation programs. Soundscape categorization, as proposed in this work, could be used to monitor acoustic trends and patterns in space and time that might provide useful indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem functionality change.

Datasets (2)
  • Parcerisas C.; Debusschere E.; Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ): Belgium; (2022): Acoustic data from drifts in the Belgian Part of the North Sea 2020-2021. Marine Data Archive., more
  • PhD_Parcerisas: Parcerisas Clea, Dick Botteldooren, Paul Devos, Debusschere Elisabeth, Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ); 2021; Broadband Acoustic Network dataset, more

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Authors | Datasets