Title
Spatiotemporal patterns and habitat preferences of bowhead whales in the Eastern Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean
Author(s)
Diogou, Nikoletta; Halliday, William D.; Dosso, Stan; Mouy, Xavier; Niemi, Andrea; Insley, Stephen J.
Published
2023
Abstract
The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. The shrinking sea-ice causes cascading effects throughout the ecosystem. While cetaceans experience climate-driven changes in the ocean, their adaptation mechanisms include spatially and/or temporally shifting their habitat occupancy, or even permanently altering their migration phenology. The urgent need for monitoring Arctic cetaceans, combined with the challenge of long-term studies in the Arctic, was addressed with passive acoustics. During 2014-2021, ten sites in the Beaufort Sea were equipped with fixed acoustic recorders, monitoring the ocean soundscape for 1-12 months. Combined manual and automated bioacoustic analysis with statistical analysis, allowed quantifying the variability of bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) presence through time and space. The bowhead is the only Arctic endemic mysticete and a species of high cultural and nutritional value for the Inuit. Results indicate a large variation in bowhead presence over the years and across the stations. However, a clear seasonal pattern is dominant throughout the data. These spatiotemporal patterns, combined with in-situ and remotely-sensed environmental variables in multivariate models allowed identifying the conditions that affect the bowhead distribution. Understanding these responses is key for predicting the impact of environmental change and important while the ocean is warming.
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