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

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...

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Autores principales: Stafford, Kathleen M., Citta, John J., Okkonen, Stephen R., Zhang, Jinlun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238202/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34181700
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253929
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author Stafford, Kathleen M.
Citta, John J.
Okkonen, Stephen R.
Zhang, Jinlun
author_facet Stafford, Kathleen M.
Citta, John J.
Okkonen, Stephen R.
Zhang, Jinlun
author_sort Stafford, Kathleen M.
collection PubMed
description 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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spelling pubmed-82382022021-07-09 Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018 Stafford, Kathleen M. Citta, John J. Okkonen, Stephen R. Zhang, Jinlun PLoS One Research Article 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. Public Library of Science 2021-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8238202/ /pubmed/34181700 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253929 Text en © 2021 Stafford et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Stafford, Kathleen M.
Citta, John J.
Okkonen, Stephen R.
Zhang, Jinlun
Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
title Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
title_full Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
title_fullStr Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
title_full_unstemmed Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
title_short Bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western Beaufort Sea 2008–2018
title_sort bowhead and beluga whale acoustic detections in the western beaufort sea 2008–2018
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238202/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34181700
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253929
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