Abstract
The soundscape is an important habitat feature for marine animals, and climate change may cause large changes to the Arctic marine soundscape through sea ice loss and increased anthropogenic activity. We examined the marine soundscape over eight months near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada, and assessed the relative contribution of the geophony (wind and wave sounds), biophony (marine mammal and fish sounds), and anthrophony (noise from vessel traffic). Sound pressure levels (SPL) were significantly higher during the summer than during the autumn and winter, and these differences were caused by increased wind/waves and vessel traffic in the summer. Increased wind speed drove increased SPL, while increased ice concentration resulted in decreased SPL. When vessel traffic was closer, SPL was higher. Marine mammal and fish vocalizations did not influence SPL; however, timing of vocalizations of both whales and seals matched seasonal patterns shown in other studies within the region. Overall, the marine soundscape near Ulukhaktok varied greatly through time and may be prone to large changes in the future as the ice-free season continues to lengthen and more vessels travel through the region.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the people of Ulukhaktok for working with us, especially A. Kudlak for his assistance deploying and retrieving the acoustic recorder, and to the Olokhaktomiut Hunters and Trappers Committee and the Inuvialuit Game Council for permission to conduct this research, under the authority of Aurora Research Institute Scientific Research Licence #15996. We are grateful to the three reviewers of this manuscript, M. Fournet, S. Haver, and S. Van Parijs, for thorough and thoughtful comments that improved the quality of this manuscript. Funding for this project was provided by the W. Garfield Weston Foundation (WDH, PK, and SJI) and Mitacs (MKP). Satellite AIS data utilized were collected by exactEarth Ltd. (2019), and made available jointly with the MEOPAR National Centre of Excellence.
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Halliday, W.D., Pine, M.K., Mouy, X. et al. The coastal Arctic marine soundscape near Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada. Polar Biol 43, 623–636 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02665-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02665-8