Passive acoustic monitoring has been successfully used to study deep-diving marine mammal populations. To assess regional population trends of sperm whales in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM), including impacts of the Deepwater Horizon platform oil spill in 2010, the Littoral Acoustic Demonstration Center-Gulf Ecological Monitoring and Modeling (LADC-GEMM) consortium collected broadband acoustic data in the Mississippi Valley/Canyon area between 2007 and 2017 using bottom-anchored moorings. These data allow the inference of short-term and long-term variations in site-specific abundances of sperm whales derived from their acoustic activity. A comparison is made between the abundances of sperm whales at specific sites in different years before and after the oil spill by estimating the regional abundance density. The results show that sperm whales were present in the region throughout the entire monitoring period. A habitat preference shift was observed for sperm whales after the 2010 oil spill with higher activities at sites farther away from the spill site. A comparison of the 2007 and 2015 results shows that the overall regional abundance of sperm whales did not recover to pre-spill levels. The results indicate that long-term spatially distributed acoustic monitoring is critical in characterizing sperm whale population changes and in understanding how environmental stressors impact regional abundances and the habitat use of sperm whales.

中文翻译：

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使用被动声学数据对墨西哥北部海湾抹香鲸特定地点的丰度趋势进行年代际评估

被动声学监测已成功用于研究深层潜水的海洋哺乳动物种群。为了评估墨西哥湾北部（GoM）抹香鲸的区域人口趋势，包括2010年Deepwater Horizo​​n平台漏油的影响，滨海声学示范中心-海湾生态监测和建模（LADC-GEMM）财团收集了宽带声学使用底部锚定的系泊系统在2007年至2017年之间的密西西比河谷/峡谷地区进行数据分析。这些数据可以推断出抹香鲸的声学活动所引起的特定地点丰富度的短期和长期变化。通过估算区域丰度密度，对溢油发生前后前后特定地点的抹香鲸的丰度进行了比较。结果表明，在整个监测期间，该地区都存在抹香鲸。在2010年漏油事件发生后，抹香鲸的栖息地偏好发生了变化，而远离漏油事件的地点的活动活跃。将2007年和2015年的结果进行比较，结果表明，该地区抹香鲸的总体丰度并未恢复到溢出前的水平。结果表明，长期的空间分布声监测对于表征抹香鲸种群变化以及了解环境压力因素如何影响区域性丰度和抹香鲸的栖息地至关重要。将2007年和2015年的结果进行比较，结果表明，该地区抹香鲸的总体丰度并未恢复到溢出前的水平。结果表明，长期的空间分布声监测对于表征抹香鲸种群变化以及了解环境压力因素如何影响区域性丰度和抹香鲸的栖息地至关重要。将2007年和2015年的结果进行比较，结果表明，该地区抹香鲸的总体丰度并未恢复到溢出前的水平。结果表明，长期的空间分布声监测对于表征抹香鲸种群变化以及了解环境压力因素如何影响区域性丰度和抹香鲸的栖息地至关重要。