Susan E. Parks

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Susan Parks is an ecologist at Syracuse University known for her research on acoustic signaling and the impact of ambient noise on communication in marine mammals.

Education and career

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Parks obtained a B.A. in Biology from Cornell University (1998) and a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (2003).[1] Following her time in Woods Hole, Parks was a postdoctoral investigator at Cornell University before joining the faculty at Pennsylvania State University. Parks is currently an associate professor of Biology at Syracuse University.[2]

Research

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At a young age, Parks' father introduced her to recordings of whale sounds and, in a 2010 interview, Parks describes the connection between this moment and an undergraduate animal behavior class that led her to a research project with frogs and ultimately her Ph.D. research on right whales.[3] During her Ph.D., Parks used an historical archive of whale sounds and determined that right whale calls increased in volume when ambient noise levels increased.[4][5] Parks has also used tags temporarily placed on right whales to study their ecology[6] and research by Holly Root-Gutteridge, a postdoctoral investigator working with Parks, has revealed that right whale songs change over a whale's lifespan.[7] By tracking the 'gunshot' sound made by right whales, Parks and colleagues determined that right whales use Roseway Basin, a region of the Scotian Shelf, from August to November as an area for breeding.[8][9]

Through the use of sound, Parks has also examined the connection between higher temperatures and sound in katydids,[10] traffic noise and frogs,[11][12] and seals that may not be loud enough to overcome noise levels from human activities.[13] Parks, Jennifer Miksis-Olds, and Samuel Denes have used sound to define the bounds of biological habitats.[14] Whales vary the noises they make and Parks' research has described the soft sounds used by mother and calf pairs as 'whispers' which may avoid the unwanted attention of predators.[15][16] The clock-like sounds in humpback whales could be a signal to nearby whales about the presence of food or a means to get the whales' prey to come out of the sand.[17][18] After the 9/11 attacks, an unplanned collaboration between Parks, Rosalind Rolland, and a team of researchers[19][20] concluded that a short-term reduction in ship noise altered hormone levels in whales.[21][22]

In addition to her research, Parks mentors women in science and in 2016 Parks said she "...wanted to be a senior scientist in the field to provide young women an example of a female role model."[23]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ Parks, Susan Elizabeth (2003). Acoustic communication in the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) (Thesis). Woods Hole, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. doi:10.1575/1912/2453. hdl:1912/2453.
  2. ^ "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Syracuse University. March 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 26, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  3. ^ Bradbury, Kelsey (November 16, 2010). "Catching up with Susan Parks". Penn State News.
  4. ^ Parks, Susan E.; Johnson, Mark; Nowacek, Douglas; Tyack, Peter L. (February 23, 2011). "Individual right whales call louder in increased environmental noise". Biology Letters. 7 (1): 33–35. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.0451. PMC 3030867. PMID 20610418.
  5. ^ Winner, Cherie (November 10, 2010). "Are Whales 'Shouting' to be Heard?". Oceanus. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  6. ^ Slivka, Kelly (August 20, 2012). "A Whale, a Tag, a Mission". New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  7. ^ Root-Gutteridge, Holly; Cusano, Dana A.; Shiu, Yu; Nowacek, Douglas P.; Van Parijs, Sofie M.; Parks, Susan E. (March 1, 2018). "A lifetime of changing calls: North Atlantic right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, refine call production as they age". Animal Behaviour. 137: 21–34. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.12.016. ISSN 0003-3472. S2CID 53145542.
  8. ^ Matthews, Leanna P.; McCordic, Jessica A.; Parks, Susan E. (March 19, 2014). "Remote Acoustic Monitoring of North Atlantic Right Whales (Eubalaena glacialis) Reveals Seasonal and Diel Variations in Acoustic Behavior". PLOS ONE. 9 (3): e91367. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...991367M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091367. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3960123. PMID 24646524.
  9. ^ "Endangered whales are breeding in a busy shipping lane". Futurity. March 26, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  10. ^ Cusano, Dana A.; Matthews, Leanna P.; Grapstein, Elyna; Parks, Susan E. (2016). "Effects of increasing temperature on acoustic advertisement in the Tettigoniidae". Journal of Orthoptera Research. 25 (1): 39–47. doi:10.1665/034.025.0101. ISSN 1082-6467. JSTOR 24892490. S2CID 89187220.
  11. ^ Tennessen, Jennifer B.; Parks, Susan E.; Swierk, Lindsey; Reinert, Laura K.; Holden, Whitney M.; Rollins-Smith, Louise A.; Walsh, Koranda A.; Langkilde, Tracy (November 21, 2018). "Frogs adapt to physiologically costly anthropogenic noise". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 285 (1891): 20182194. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.2194. PMC 6253376. PMID 30464067.
  12. ^ "Traffic noise stresses out frogs, but some have adapted | Penn State University". news.psu.edu. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  13. ^ Matthews, Leanna P.; Fournet, Michelle E. H.; Gabriele, Christine; Klinck, Holger; Parks, Susan E. (April 29, 2020). "Acoustically advertising male harbour seals in southeast Alaska do not make biologically relevant acoustic adjustments in the presence of vessel noise". Biology Letters. 16 (4): 20190795. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0795. PMC 7211458. PMID 32264795.
  14. ^ Parks, Susan E.; Miksis-Olds, Jennifer L.; Denes, Samuel L. (2014). "Assessing marine ecosystem acoustic diversity across ocean basins". Ecological Informatics. 21: 81–88. doi:10.1016/j.ecoinf.2013.11.003.
  15. ^ Daley, Jason (October 11, 2019). "North Atlantic Right Whale Mamas Whisper to Their Babies to Keep Them Safe". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  16. ^ Parks, Susan E.; Cusano, Dana A.; Van Parijs, Sofie M.; Nowacek, Douglas P. (October 31, 2019). "Acoustic crypsis in communication by North Atlantic right whale mother–calf pairs on the calving grounds". Biology Letters. 15 (10): 20190485. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0485. PMC 6832179. PMID 31594493.
  17. ^ "Why do whales make 'tick-tock' noises? Find out!". Deccan Chronicle. December 17, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  18. ^ Parks, Susan E.; Cusano, Dana A.; Stimpert, Alison K.; Weinrich, Mason T.; Friedlaender, Ari S.; Wiley, David N. (December 16, 2014). "Evidence for acoustic communication among bottom foraging humpback whales". Scientific Reports. 4 (1): 7508. Bibcode:2014NatSR...4E7508P. doi:10.1038/srep07508. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 4267198. PMID 25512188.
  19. ^ Struck, Doug (October 12, 2014). "The whale savers". Christian Science Monitor.
  20. ^ Lindsay, Jay (February 20, 2012). "Unplanned 9/11 analysis links noise, whale stress". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  21. ^ Rolland, Rosalind M.; Parks, Susan E.; Hunt, Kathleen E.; Castellote, Manuel; Corkeron, Peter J.; Nowacek, Douglas P.; Wasser, Samuel K.; Kraus, Scott D. (June 22, 2012). "Evidence that ship noise increases stress in right whales". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279 (1737): 2363–2368. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.2429. PMC 3350670. PMID 22319129.
  22. ^ Cave, James (January 14, 2015). "The Ingenious Way Humpback Whales Hunt In Pitch-Black Waters At Night". HuffPost. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  23. ^ Lagan, Susan (August 18, 2016). "Female champions of science". The Royal Gazette. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  24. ^ "Four faculty members to receive Presidential Early Career Awards | Penn State University". news.psu.edu. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  25. ^ "President Honors Outstanding Early-Career Scientists". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  26. ^ "Susan Parks". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
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Susan E. Parks publications indexed by Google Scholar