Abstract
Shedding light on the distribution and ecosystem function of mesopelagic communities in the twilight zone (~200–1000 m depth) of global oceans can bridge the gap in estimates of species biomass, trophic linkages, and carbon sequestration role. Ocean basin-scale bioacoustic data from ships of opportunity programs are increasingly improving this situation by providing spatio-temporal calibrated acoustic snapshots of mesopelagic communities that can mutually complement established global ecosystem, carbon, and biogeochemical models. This data descriptor provides an overview of such bioacoustic data from Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Ships of Opportunity (SOOP) Bioacoustics sub-Facility. Until 30 September 2020, more than 600,000 km of data from 22 platforms were processed and made available to a publicly accessible Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) Portal. Approximately 67% of total data holdings were collected by 13 commercial fishing vessels, fostering collaborations between researchers and ocean industry. IMOS Bioacoustics sub-Facility offers the prospect of acquiring new data, improved insights, and delving into new research challenges for investigating status and trend of mesopelagic ecosystems.
Highlights
Background & SummarySince 2010, as a part of existing ocean industry collaboration, Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Ships of Opportunity (SOOP) Bioacoustics sub-Facility has been collecting opportunistic, supervised, and unsupervised active bioacoustic data from different platforms including commercial fishing and research vessels transiting ocean basins[1] (Fig. 1)
The primary data-type derived from IMOS Bioacoustics sub-Facility is the georeferenced, calibrated[3,4], and processed[5] single-beam water column volume backscattering coefficient sv (m2 m−3) values, representing the linear sum of backscatter from acoustically detectable individual organisms within the sampling volume[2] (Fig. 2)
Mesopelagic communities are mid-water predators and prey in the twilight zone, and presumed to make the largest natural daily animal movement on earth based on their biomass, revealing diel vertical migration[8,9] and large-scale spatio-temporal patterns in pelagic sound scattering layers[10] (Fig. 2)
Summary
Since 2010, as a part of existing ocean industry collaboration, Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Ships of Opportunity (SOOP) Bioacoustics sub-Facility (here onwards IMOS Bioacoustics sub-Facility) has been collecting opportunistic, supervised, and unsupervised active bioacoustic data from different platforms including commercial fishing and research vessels transiting ocean basins[1] (Fig. 1). The main goals and potential uptake values of IMOS Bioacoustics sub-Facility data are: (1) provide calibrated time series acoustic observations for the status and trend of mesopelagic ecosystem, (2) develop a framework synergizing active bioacoustic observations and ecosystem models[61,62] for studying open ocean ecosystem dynamics, and (3) develop an active bioacoustic data-based ecosystem Essential Ocean Variable (eEOV)[63] to complement established and future ocean observing systems measuring physical, chemical, and biological environment of the ocean These frameworks would help to advance scientific knowledge of marine food chains and manage marine ecosystems sustainably
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