The ESME Workbench: Simulating the Impact of Anthropogenic Sound on Marine Mammals

• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-7311-5_48
• Publication Date: 2011-12-07T16:29:05Z
• Authors: David C. Mountain; David Anderson; Andrew Brughera; Matthew Cross; Dorian S. Houser; Nael Musleh; Michael Porter; Martin Siderius
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; Animals; Computer Simulation; Human Activities; 14. Life underwater; Noise; Models, Biological; Software

The Effects of Sound in the Marine Environment (ESME) Workbench (http://esme.bu.edu) is a software tool designed to predict the impact of anthropogenic sounds on marine mammals. The ESME Workbench allows the user to select site-specific environmental data such as bathymetry, sound-speed profiles, sediment type, and average wind speed to predict sound propagation in a wide range of scenarios and to record the sound exposures received by virtual animals. The Workbench provides access to raw exposure information as well as summarized exposure information at the end of the simulation run. These data are made available in formats suitable for postprocessing utilizing a variety of data analysis tools.