Generalized additive models for Risso's dolphin group size estimation in the Gulf of Taranto (Northern Ionian Sea, Central-eastern Mediterranean Sea)

Cetaceans are species indicator of the ecosystem health status. It is necessary to increase knowledge on them to support the conservation of these species and their habitat. New strategy, based on machine learning techniques, has been adopted to estimate cetacean group size. Starting from Risso's dolphin sighting data in the Ionian Sea collected between 2009 and 2019, the aim of this work is to build a correlative model which can help in estimating Risso's dolphin group size, by using a set of physical and biogeochemical features.