Abstract
Two recent studies of auditory temporary threshold shift (TTS) in a harbor porpoise at 25 and 28 kHz are compared to previously published results revealing a very large difference in sensitivity to TTS correlating with experimental paradigm. For fatiguing noise above 10 kHz, the TTS-onset thresholds measured with behavioral (psychophysical) methods following noise exposure to free-swimming porpoises are 40–60 dB higher than TTS-onset thresholds measured with auditory brain stem recordings on porpoises exposed while stationary. The uncertainty about sensitivity of porpoises to noise exposure above 10 kHz have very large implications for regulation of underwater noise and call for immediate further experiments. Such experiments should disentangle and quantify the confounding effects of exposure (stationary vs. free-swimming) and threshold measurements (behavioral vs. brain stem recordings), and the results are required to establish the VHF weighting function above 10 kHz, applicable to porpoises in assessment of risk of impact from high-frequency noise sources.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Andersson M, Nöjd A (2016) Impact of active sonar on marine mammals – updated knowledge base since 2013. Report number: FOI-R-4234-SE (in Swedish). Swedish Defence Research Agency, Stockholm
Danish Energy Agency (2022) Guideline for underwater noise. Installation of impact or vibratory driven piles. Danish Ministry of Energy, Copenhagen
Finneran JJ (2015) Noise-induced hearing loss in marine mammals: a review of temporary threshold shift studies from 1996 to 2015. J Acoust Soc Am 138(3):1702–1726. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4927418
Finneran JJ, Schlundt CE, Branstetter BK, Dear RL (2007) Assessing temporary threshold shift in a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) using multiple simultaneous auditory evoked potentials. J Acoust Soc Am 122(2):1249–1264
Kastelein RA, Helder-Hoek L, Van de Voorde S (2017) Effects of exposure to sonar playback sounds (3.5–4.1 kHz) on harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) hearing. J Acoust Soc Am 142(4):1965–1975. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5005613
Kastelein RA, Helder-Hoek L, Cornelisse S, Huijser LAE, Gransier R (2019a) Temporary hearing threshold shift in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) due to one-sixth-octave noise band at 32 kHz. Aquat Mamm 45(5):549–562. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.45.5.2019.549
Kastelein RA, Helder-Hoek L, van Kester R, Huisman R, Gransier R (2019b) Temporary hearing threshold shift in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) due to one-sixth octave noise band at 16 kHz. Aquat Mamm 45(3):280–292. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.45.3.2019.280
Kastelein RA, Cornelisse SA, Huijser LAE, Helder-Hoek L (2020a) Temporary hearing threshold shift in harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) due to one-sixth-octave noise bands at 63 kHz. Aquat Mamm 46(2):167–182. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.46.2.2020.167
Kastelein RA, Helder-Hoek L, Cornelisse SA, Defillet LN, Huijser LAE (2020b) Temporary threshold shift in a Second Harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) after exposure to a one-sixth-octave noise band at 1.5 kHz and a 6.5 kHz continuous wave. Aquat Mamm 46(5):431–443. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.46.5.2020.431
Kastelein RA, Helder-Hoek L, Cornelisse SA, Huijser LAE, Gransier R (2020c) Temporary hearing threshold shift at ecologically relevant frequencies in a harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) due to exposure to a noise band centered at 88.4 kHz. Aquat Mamm 46(5):444–453. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.46.5.2020.444
Kastelein RA, Helder-Hoek L, Cornelisse SA, Defillet LN, Huijser LAE, Gransier R (2021) Temporary hearing threshold shift in a harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) due to exposure to a continuous one-sixth-octave noise band centered at 0.5 kHz. Aquat Mamm 47(2):135–145. https://doi.org/10.1578/Am.47.2.2021.135
National Marine Fisheries Service (2018) 2018 revision to: technical guidance for assessing the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammal hearing (version 2.0): underwater thresholds for onset of permanent and temporary threshold shifts. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-59, Silver Spring, MD
Popov VV, Supin AY, Wang D, Wang K, Dong L, Wang S (2011) Noise-induced temporary threshold shift and recovery in Yangtze finless porpoises Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaorientalis. J Acoust Soc Am 130(1):574–584
Ruser A, Kristensen JH, Wahlberg M (2015) Harbour porpoise hearing: temporary threshold shift induced by a 25 kHz tone. Report to the Swedish Defence Research Agency. University of Southern Denmark, Kerteminde
Schaffeld T, Ruser A, Woelfing B, Baltzer J, Kristensen JH, Larsson J, Schnitzler JG, Siebert U (2019) The use of seal scarers as a protective mitigation measure can induce hearing impairment in harbour porpoises. J Acoust Soc Am 146(6):4288–4298. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5135303
Schaffeld T, Schnitzler JG, Ruser A, Baltzer J, Schuster M, Siebert U (2022) A result of accidental noise pollution: acoustic flowmeters emit 28 kHz pulses that may affect harbor porpoise hearing. Front Mar Sci 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.892050
Southall BL, Finneran JJ, Reichmuth C, Nachtigall PE, Ketten DR, Bowles AE, Ellison WT, Nowacek DP, Tyack PL (2019) Marine mammal noise exposure criteria: updated scientific recommendations for residual hearing effects. Aquat Mamm 45(2):125–232. https://doi.org/10.1578/am.45.2.2019.125
Tougaard J, Beedholm K, Madsen PT (2022) Thresholds for noise induced hearing loss in harbor porpoises and phocid seals. J Acoust Soc Am 151(6):4252–4263. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0011560
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Tougaard, J., Beedholm, K., Madsen, P.T. (2023). Temporary Threshold Shift in Porpoise Hearing: Effect of Experimental Protocol. In: Popper, A.N., Sisneros, J., Hawkins, A., Thomsen, F. (eds) The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10417-6_166-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10417-6_166-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-10417-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-10417-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Biomedicine and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences