The coastal Arctic marine soundscape near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada

Halliday, William D.; Pine, Matthew K.; Mouy, Xavier; Kortsalo, Piia; Hilliard, R. Casey; Insley, Stephen J.

doi:10.1007/s00300-020-02665-8

Cited by 21 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The exceptionally low background noise during winter does make it possible that the calls could be detected at both of our closest sites (i.e. the two Cape Bathurst sites) [32,33]. Cape Bathurst would seem to be the more likely occasional overwintering location, being both a known summertime foraging congregation location for bowhead whales, particularly sub-adults, and a wintertime polynya [28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…We processed all acoustic data using an automated detector and classifier for Arctic marine mammals (software: Spectro Detector; JASCO Applied Sciences Ltd, Victoria, BC, Canada), which we have used to successfully detect and classify bowhead whale vocalizations, and also beluga whales and bearded seals, in the western Canadian Arctic on multiple datasets [31][32][33][34]. The detector is fully described in Mouy et al [35].…”

Section: Bowhead Whale Acoustic Detectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bowhead whales overwinter in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea

et al. 2021

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The bowhead whale is the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and is well adapted to this environment. Bowheads live near the polar ice edge for much of the year and although sea ice dynamics are not the only driver of their annual migratory movements, it likely plays a key role. Given the intrinsic variability of open water and ice, one might expect bowhead migratory plasticity to be high and linked to this proximate environmental factor. Here, through a network of underwater passive acoustic recorders, we document the first known occurrence of bowheads overwintering in what is normally their summer foraging grounds in the Amundsen Gulf and eastern Beaufort Sea. The underlying question is whether this is the leading edge of a phenological shift in a species' migratory behaviour in an environment undergoing dramatic shifts due to climate change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Bowhead Whale Acoustic Detectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bowhead whales overwinter in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea

et al. 2021

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“…More extreme evidence of this delayed migration includes mid-winter sightings and acoustic detections of bowhead whales in the eastern Canadian Beaufort in 2018-2019 [56]. While the seasonal residency of bowheads in the Beaufort seems to be extending with declining sea ice [55][56][57], particularly in the fall, there is less evidence that they are changing their overall distribution. As in the 1980s to early 1990s [28], bowhead whales are still found predominately on the Beaufort Sea shelf suggesting that distance to the coast, and/ or bathymetry is a more important driver of occurrence than distance to sea ice [44,58].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018

et al. 2021

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The Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO) was established to detect environmental changes in the Pacific Arctic by regular monitoring of biophysical responses in each of 8 DBO regions. Here we examine the occurrence of bowhead and beluga whale vocalizations in the western Beaufort Sea acquired by acoustic instruments deployed from September 2008-July 2014 and September 2016-October 2018 to examine inter-annual variability of these Arctic endemic species in DBO Region 6. Acoustic data were collected on an oceanographic mooring deployed in the Beaufort shelfbreak jet at ~71.4°N, 152.0°W. Spectrograms of acoustic data files were visually examined for the presence or absence of known signals of bowhead and beluga whales. Weekly averages of whale occurrence were compared with outputs of zooplankton, temperature and sea ice from the BIOMAS model to determine if any of these variables influenced whale occurrence. In addition, the dates of acoustic whale passage in the spring and fall were compared to annual sea ice melt-out and freeze-up dates to examine changes in phenology. Neither bowhead nor beluga whale migration times changed significantly in spring, but bowhead whales migrated significantly later in fall from 2008–2018. There were no clear relationships between bowhead whales and the environmental variables, suggesting that the DBO 6 region is a migratory corridor, but not a feeding hotspot, for this species. Surprisingly, beluga whale acoustic presence was related to zooplankton biomass near the mooring, but this is unlikely to be a direct relationship: there are likely interactions of environmental drivers that result in higher occurrence of both modeled zooplankton and belugas in the DBO 6 region. The environmental triggers that drive the migratory phenology of the two Arctic endemic cetacean species likely extend from Bering Sea transport of heat, nutrients and plankton through the Chukchi and into the Beaufort Sea.

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“…Using R 87 software, we investigated the acoustic environment animals may be exposed to, by analyzing the resulting time series for daily SPL values, sailing time (anthrophony), and wind (geophony). Given our classification of whale encounters as weekly events and the considerable large proportion of whale presence on a daily basis, we did not consider animal vocalizations as valuable contributor to the overall soundscape 90 . Considering the effects of anthropogenic activity and contributions of biological sounds to the soundscape, we assessed the statistical effect of daily sailing time per vessel type for each distance range, wind speed, and wind direction (as a categorical variable) on the daily averaged SPL values for three frequency bins (< 200 Hz, 200–2000 Hz, and > 2000 Hz).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal patterns in the soundscape of a Norwegian gateway to the Arctic

Aniceto

Ferguson²,

Pedersen

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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As an Arctic gateway, the Norwegian Sea sustains a rich diversity of seasonal and resident species of soniferous animals, vulnerable to the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities. We show the occurrence of seasonal patterns of acoustic signals in a small canyon off Northern Norway, and investigate cetacean vocal behavior, human-made noise, and climatic contributions to underwater sound between January and May 2018. Mostly median sound levels ranged between 68.3 and 96.31 dB re 1 μPa2 across 1/3 octave bands (13 Hz–16 kHz), with peaks in February and March. Frequencies under 2 kHz were dominated by sounds from baleen whales with highest rates of occurrence during winter and early spring. During late-spring non-biological sounds were predominant at higher frequencies that were linked mainly to ship traffic. Seismic pulses were also recorded during spring. We observed a significant effect of wind speed and ship sailing time on received sound levels across multiple distance ranges. Our results provide a new assessment of high-latitude continental soundscapes in the East Atlantic Ocean, useful for management strategies in areas where anthropogenic pressure is increasing. Based on the current status of the local soundscape, we propose considerations for acoustic monitoring to be included in future management plans.

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The coastal Arctic marine soundscape near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada

Cited by 21 publications

References 55 publications

Bowhead whales overwinter in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea

Bowhead whales overwinter in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea

Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018

Temporal patterns in the soundscape of a Norwegian gateway to the Arctic

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