GELIFES Seminars - Annebelle Kok

Annebelle Kok (Leiden ​University)

Acoustic signatures of marine ecosystems

Marine ecosystems are changing at a rapid pace. Current challenges in this area are understanding how stressors change the environment and creating high-resolution monitoring tools for monitoring the change at an adequate pace. Traditional biodiversity assessments are time-intensive and weather-dependent, leading to infrequent measurements. Bioacoustics offers a non-invasive, high-resolution way of monitoring marine biodiversity. Marine animals such as fish sing during vital parts of their life, allowing us to observe which species are thriving. Fish song will enable us to assess biodiversity change, and direct conservation efforts.

Biosketch:
Annebelle Kok is a marine ecologist, a Veni scholar at Leiden University and a guest researcher at University of Groningen. Her research focuses on the ecology and conservation of the acoustic diversity in marine environments. In her research she uses passive acoustic monitoring to study fish song as a proxy for marine biodiversity.