Ziphius cavirostris presence relative to vertical and temporal variability of oceanographic conditions in the southern california bight

The oceanographic conditions of the Southern California Bight (SCB) dictate the distribution and abundance of prey resources and therefore the presence of mobile predators, such as goose-beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris). Goose-beaked whales are deep-diving odontocetes that spend a majority of their time foraging at depth. Due to their cryptic behavior, little is known about how they respond to seasonal and interannual changes in their environment. This study utilizes passive acoustic data recorded from two sites within the SCB to explore the oceanographic conditions that goose-beaked whales appear to favor. Utilizing optimum multiparameter analysis, modeled temperature and salinity data are used to identify and quantify these source waters: Pacific Subarctic Upper Water (PSUW), Pacific Equatorial Water (PEW), and Eastern North Pacific Central Water (ENPCW). The interannual and seasonal variability in goose-beaked whale presence was related to the variability in El Niño Southern Oscil..., Acoustic data was collected using High-frequency Acoustic Recording Packages (HARPs, Wiggins and Hildebrand, 2007), passively recorded the ocean soundscape with a 200 kHz sampling frequency and 16-bit quantization, resulting in an effective bandwidth of 10 Hz to 100 kHz. Each HARP hydrophone was calibrated in the laboratory before initial deployment, while representative full systems were also calibrated at the US Navy’s Transducer Evaluation Center facility to verify the laboratory calibrations. Consistent deployments provided a near-continuous time series at both acoustic monitoring sites. Any gaps in the time series were due to battery life, data storage capacity, system failure, and/or vessel and crew availability to service the instruments.
Goose-beaked whale echolocation signals were identified using a combination of automated detection and manual verification techniques (Baumann-Pickering et al., 2014). All echolocation clicks were first identified using the automated Teager Kais..., , # Ziphius cavirostris presence relative to vertical and temporal variability of oceanographic conditions in the southern california bight

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8gtht76w1](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8gtht76w1)

**Dates of Collection: July 2007-September 2020 (H), January 2009-September 2020 (N)**

**Geographic Location of Data Collection:**

| **Site** | **Latitude** | **Longitude** | **Depth (m)** |
| :------- | :--------------- | :---------------- | :------------ |
| **H** | **32° 50.76’N**  | **119° 10.57’ W** | **1000** |
| **N** | **32° 22.21’ N** | **118° 33.85’ W** | **1300** |

## Description of the data and file structure

**File List:**

1. SiteH_Zc_monthly_bin.csv
2. SiteN_Zc_monthly_bin.csv

This study used passive acoustic monitoring to study goose-beaked whale presence at two sites within the Southern California Bight; sites H and N. Each site has a separate csv file that includes the monthly bins, minutes of presence without percent eff...