A baseline underwater soundscape of an intensely human-exploited estuarine and the effects of vessel traffic sound

Abstract

In this article we studied the anthropically impacted natural environ mental sound in the port of Bahía Blanca, located in the southern province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. To acquire the acoustic signals, an omni-directional passive hydrophone was used. The acoustic signals were analysed using scripts implemented in the R programming language. Temporal series without maritime traffic were used as a baseline to describe the soundscape in the harbour area by estimating its power spectral density (PSD). Subsequently, the acoustic environ ment was analysed with the presence of two man-made acoustic sources “boat” and “ship” in the vicinity. Finally, the calculated normal soundscape level in the harbour has a magnitude of 116.25 dB re 1 µPa.