Researcher
Marine Animal Conservation and Public Engagement Department (CAPE)

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Villa Comunale
80121 Napoli - Italia

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E-mail: francesco.caruso(at)szn.it
Contatto Skype: seaciccio

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Monitoring marine ecosystems in the vast ocean environment presents a significant challenge. Luckily, the sound travels extremely well in the sea! My main investigation technique is Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) and my scientific effort is focused on fundamental ecological questions (e.g. species distribution, biodiversity, effect of human activities). PAM is spreading around the globe as a non-invasive and influential methodology to study marine ecosystems and organisms (e.g. elusive species, benthic communities, habitat degradation). This is a key sampling approach to acquire long-term and large-scale information about natural phenomena (e.g. sea state, wind and rain intensity, ice melting), organisms that produce sounds (e.g. crustaceans, fishes, marine mammals) and sources of anthropogenic noise (e.g. ships, sonar, airgun, pile-driving). In my research, there are connections between biology, physics and engineer. I’m engaged on the development of new technologies and signal processing techniques in order to automatically classify underwater sounds. The analysis of large datasets allows to provide results on the activity and spatio-temporal distribution of various acoustic sources. Furthermore, the study of the impact of anthropogenic noise interests me, as a stressor for marine animals causing behavioural changes, hearing loss and communication masking. I’m also involved on the application of bio-logging tags to acquire additional information on animal behaviour and aquatic locomotion, with a particular interest on marine mammals (e.g. diving profile, feeding behaviour, energy expenditure, migration route, fine-scale orientation, intraspecies communication, home range, hazard avoidance).

Selected Publications

Dong L, Caruso F, Dong J, Liu M, Lin M, Li S (2021). Whistle characteristics of a newly recorded Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) population in waters southwest of Hainan Island, China, differ from other humpback dolphin populations. Mar Mam Sci; 1– 22. DOI: 10.1111/mms.12816.

Caruso F, Hickmott L, Warren JD, Segre P, Chiang G, Bahamonde P, Español-Jiménez S, Li S, Bocconcelli A (2020). Diel differences in blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) dive behavior increase nighttime risk of ship strikes in northern Chilean Patagonia. Integrative Zoology 00, 1–18. DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12501.

Li S, Lin M, Caruso F, Dong L, Lin W, Rosso M, Bocconcelli A (2020). Cetaceans under threat in South China Sea. Science; 368 (6495):1074-1075. DOI: 10.1126/science.abc7557.

Caruso F, Dong L, Lin M, Liu M, Xu W, Li S (2020). Influence of acoustic habitat variation on Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) in shallow waters of Hainan Island, China. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 147(6):3871-3882. DOI: 10.1121/10.0001384.

Rosso M, Lin M, Caruso F, Liu M, Dong L, Borroni A, Lin W, Tang X, Bocconcelli A, Li S (2020). First live sighting of Deraniyagala’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon hotaula) or ginkgo-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens) in the western Pacific (South China Sea) with preliminary data on coloration, natural markings and surfacing patterns. Integrative Zoology 00, 1–11. DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12507.

Caruso F, Dong L, Lin M, Liu M, Gong Z, Xu W, Alonge G, Li S (2020). Monitoring of a Nearshore Small Dolphin Species Using Passive Acoustic Platforms and Supervised Machine Learning Techniques. Front. Mar. Sci. - Marine Megafauna. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2020.00267.

Lin M, Caruso F, Liu M, Lek S, Li K, Gozlan R, Li S (2019). Food-mortality risk trade-off in the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis). Aquatic Conserv: Mar Freshw Ecosyst,1–8. DOI: 10.1002/aqc.3280.

Caruso F, Sciacca V, Parisi I, Viola S, de Vincenzi G, Bocconcelli A, Mooney TA, Sayigh L, Li S, Filiciotto F, Moulins A, Tepsich P, Rosso M (2019). Acoustic recordings of rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis) offshore Eastern Sicily (Mediterranean Sea). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 146, EL286; DOI: 10.1121/1.5126118.

Flaspohler GE, Caruso F, Mooney AT, Katija K, Fontes J, Afonso P, Shorteret A (2019). Locomotion patterns of the veined squid (Loligo forbesi) using bio-logging tags. J Exp Biol.; pii: jeb.198226. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.198226.

Dong L, Caruso F, Lin M, Liu M, Gong Z, Dong J, Cang S, Li S (2019). Whistles emitted by Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Zhanjiang waters, China. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 145 (6), June 2019, DOI: 10.1121/1.5110304.

Caruso F, Alonge G, Bellia G, De Domenico E, Grammauta R, Larosa G, Mazzola S, Riccobene G, Pavan G, Papale E, Pellegrino C, Pulvirenti S, Sciacca V, Simeone F, Speziale F, Viola S, Buscaino G (2017). Long-Term Monitoring of Dolphin Biosonar Activity in Deep Pelagic Waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Scientific Reports, 7: 4321. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04608-6.

Caruso F, Lizarralde D, Elsenbeck J, Collins J, Zimmer WMX, Sayigh L (2016). Detection and Tracking of Fin Whales During Seismic Exploration in the Gulf of California. Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics 27, 070021. DOI: 10.1121/2.0000424.

Caruso F, Sciacca V, Bellia G, De Domenico E, Larosa G, Papale E, et al. (2015). Size Distribution of Sperm Whales Acoustically Identified During Long Term Deep-Sea Monitoring in the Ionian Sea. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144503. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144503.

Sciacca V, Caruso F, Beranzoli L, Chierici F, De Domenico E, Embriaco D, et al. (2015). Annual Acoustic Presence of Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) Offshore Eastern Sicily, Central Mediterranean Sea. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0141838. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0141838.