Back to Search
Start Over
Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 6, p e0253929 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2021.
-
Abstract
- 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.
- Subjects :
- Bowhead Whale
Glaciology
Marine and Aquatic Sciences
Social Sciences
law.invention
law
Psychology
Ice Cover
Mammals
Multidisciplinary
geography.geographical_feature_category
biology
Animal Behavior
Arctic Regions
Physics
Sea Ice
Eukaryota
Plankton
Spring
Oceanography
Vertebrates
Physical Sciences
Medicine
Seasons
Research Article
Science
Marine Biology
Zooplankton
biology.animal
Autumn
Sea ice
Animals
Humans
Marine Mammals
Beluga Whales
Ecosystem
geography
Behavior
Whale
Bowhead Whales
Organisms
Whales
Biology and Life Sciences
Beaufort scale
Acoustics
Mooring
Invertebrates
Arctic
Amniotes
Earth Sciences
Environmental science
Beluga Whale
Animal Migration
Zoology
Bioacoustics
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4886e2a4acdcdcd34aeb6c0c1951f483