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This paper describes the Santos Basin Underwater Soundscape Monitoring Project (PMPAS-BS), a Brazilian ocean soundscape monitoring initiative. The main objective of the project is to quantify and assess hydroacoustic noise of anthropogenic origin in a large sedimentary basin extending from 23° S to 28° S on the southeastern Brazilian continental margin of the South Atlantic Ocean. Noise associated with oil and gas (O&G) exploration and production activities is the primary target, but this oceanic region also has busy shipping lanes for commercial, military, and fishing vessels. The two main hubs of Brazil’s export and import of goods by sea are located in this region: Santos and Rio de Janeiro ports. The project has three measurement components: mobile monitoring based on gliders and drifting acoustic profilers, fixed shallow-water monitoring based on acoustic measurements at coastal stations near shipping lanes associated with exploration and production activities in the Santos Basin, and fixed oceanic monitoring based on deep-water mooring lines equipped with passive autonomous acoustic recorders near production units, shipping lanes, and areas with lower intensity of O&G activities (pristine or reference sites). Numerical modeling of anthropogenic underwater acoustic noise has also been included as a fourth project component. The PMPAS-BS covers an area of more than 251,000 km² and uses several instruments with different methods and sensors for acoustic measurements. Its results provide current sound levels over a very large region of the western South Atlantic, both in areas more and less affected by anthropogenic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Santos Basin Underwater Soundscape Monitoring Project (PMPAS-BS), a Brazilian ocean soundscape monitoring initiative. The main objective of the project is to quantify and assess hydroacoustic noise of anthropogenic origin in a large sedimentary basin extending from 23° S to 28° S on the southeastern Brazilian continental margin of the South Atlantic Ocean. Noise associated with oil and gas (O&G) exploration and production activities is the primary target, but this oceanic region also has busy shipping lanes for commercial, military, and fishing vessels. The two main hubs of Brazil’s export and import of goods by sea are located in this region: Santos and Rio de Janeiro ports. The project has three measurement components: mobile monitoring based on gliders and drifting acoustic profilers, fixed shallow-water monitoring based on acoustic measurements at coastal stations near shipping lanes associated with exploration and production activities in the Santos Basin, and fixed oceanic monitoring based on deep-water mooring lines equipped with passive autonomous acoustic recorders near production units, shipping lanes, and areas with lower intensity of O&G activities (pristine or reference sites). Numerical modeling of anthropogenic underwater acoustic noise has also been included as a fourth project component. The PMPAS-BS covers an area of more than 251,000 km² and uses several instruments with different methods and sensors for acoustic measurements. Its results provide current sound levels over a very large region of the western South Atlantic, both in areas more and less affected by anthropogenic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to understand the dispersal patterns of non-indigenous Tubastraea spp. (Sun Coral) larvae in the Brazil Current (BC), specifically in the Cape Frio recurrent cyclonic eddy (CFE) scenario. For this, the Regional Ocean Model System was used to simulate the hydrodynamic fields in a high-resolution nested grid, where a model of lagrangian floats, in a good approximation of the larvae properties and considering massive planulation events, was coupled with surface larval release from the Campos Basin area. The simulation was representative of mesoscale features compared to similar studies, ARGO vertical profiles and a py-eddy-track algorithm was used to obtain eddy variables, such as radius, rotational and translational velocities. These parameters are fundamental to access when an eddy tends to trap or not the water, heat and plankton in its interior. CFE turned out to be highly nonlinear, with a strong tendency to trap larvae in its core, acting as a dispersal constrictor when compared with the organisms in the axis of the higher speed of BC. A strong negative correlation (-0.75) was found between the days that larvae were inside the eddy and their distance from the origin. None of the 48,000 larvae released during simulated experiment a 16-day spawning event reached the coast. There are two different patterns for the dispersal, one along the shelf break and another, with higher larval density, off from the 1000 m isobath. The CFE's presence allows larvae to remain in the same region for longer periods, although in offshore areas. Therefore, as there is considerable availability of fixed substrates on oil rig structures, larvae could settle on them resulting in a possible inter-platforms connectivity between populations of Tubastraea spp. Also, regions in the CFE that present downward vertical velocities (downwelling), may move young larvae to depths of about 60 m suggesting that subsurface colonizations are possible due to specific dynamics of propagating cyclonic eddies. So, identifying the main factors that affect the dispersion of propagules is essential to subsidize management policies for controlling bioinvasion associated with exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in offshore areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction is presented to the article "The Brazilian Santos basin underwater soundscape monitoring project (PMPAS-BS)" published in a previous issue of the periodical.

Soundscape ecology has gained prominence in the monitoring of marine ecosystems due to its non-invasive characteristics and spatiotemporal efficiency. However, the development of ecoacoustic indices is a recent field that needs to address many challenges to fulfill its great potential, especially in the context of marine ecology. Here, we reviewed the most recent studies that used ecoacoustic indices in marine ecosystems. The literature search was conducted in the Scopus (Elsevier) database and used the chain referral sampling in the list of references of each publication. In total, we identified 27 publications that used ecoacoustic indices in marine environments such as coral reefs, rocky shores, coastal regions, and offshore regions. A total of four major limitations were identified and addressed, including: the challenge to find adequate acoustic bioindicators; the lack of a universal index or standardized protocol; the issue that most acoustic indices applied to marine environments have been developed to be used in terrestrial environments; and the lack of studies that have tested ecoacoustic indices under different environmental conditions. Once these challenges are addressed, the analysis of marine sound based on the interpretation of ecoacoustic indices has a great potential to become one of the most cost-effective tools for monitoring environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]