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An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation

There is an imminent need to collect information on distribution and abundance of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to understand how they are affected by the ongoing decrease in Arctic sea ice. The Kane Basin (KB) subpopulation is a group of high-latitude polar bears that ranges between High Arctic Can...

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Autores principales: Wiig, Øystein, Atkinson, Stephen N., Born, Erik W., Stapleton, Seth, Arnold, Todd, Dyck, Markus, Laidre, Kristin L., Lunn, Nicholas J., Regehr, Eric V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8776663/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35125636
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02974-6
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author Wiig, Øystein
Atkinson, Stephen N.
Born, Erik W.
Stapleton, Seth
Arnold, Todd
Dyck, Markus
Laidre, Kristin L.
Lunn, Nicholas J.
Regehr, Eric V.
author_facet Wiig, Øystein
Atkinson, Stephen N.
Born, Erik W.
Stapleton, Seth
Arnold, Todd
Dyck, Markus
Laidre, Kristin L.
Lunn, Nicholas J.
Regehr, Eric V.
author_sort Wiig, Øystein
collection PubMed
description There is an imminent need to collect information on distribution and abundance of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to understand how they are affected by the ongoing decrease in Arctic sea ice. The Kane Basin (KB) subpopulation is a group of high-latitude polar bears that ranges between High Arctic Canada and NW Greenland around and north of the North Water polynya (NOW). We conducted a line transect distance sampling aerial survey of KB polar bears during 28 April–12 May 2014. A total of 4160 linear kilometers were flown in a helicopter over fast ice in the fjords and over offshore pack ice between 76° 50′ and 80° N′. Using a mark-recapture distance sampling protocol, the estimated abundance was 190 bears (95% lognormal CI: 87–411; CV 39%). This estimate is likely negatively biased to an unknown degree because the offshore sectors of the NOW with much open water were not surveyed because of logistical and safety reasons. Our study demonstrated that aerial surveys may be a feasible method for obtaining abundance estimates for small subpopulations of polar bears.
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spelling pubmed-87766632022-02-02 An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation Wiig, Øystein Atkinson, Stephen N. Born, Erik W. Stapleton, Seth Arnold, Todd Dyck, Markus Laidre, Kristin L. Lunn, Nicholas J. Regehr, Eric V. Polar Biol Original Paper There is an imminent need to collect information on distribution and abundance of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) to understand how they are affected by the ongoing decrease in Arctic sea ice. The Kane Basin (KB) subpopulation is a group of high-latitude polar bears that ranges between High Arctic Canada and NW Greenland around and north of the North Water polynya (NOW). We conducted a line transect distance sampling aerial survey of KB polar bears during 28 April–12 May 2014. A total of 4160 linear kilometers were flown in a helicopter over fast ice in the fjords and over offshore pack ice between 76° 50′ and 80° N′. Using a mark-recapture distance sampling protocol, the estimated abundance was 190 bears (95% lognormal CI: 87–411; CV 39%). This estimate is likely negatively biased to an unknown degree because the offshore sectors of the NOW with much open water were not surveyed because of logistical and safety reasons. Our study demonstrated that aerial surveys may be a feasible method for obtaining abundance estimates for small subpopulations of polar bears. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-11-22 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8776663/ /pubmed/35125636 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02974-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Paper
Wiig, Øystein
Atkinson, Stephen N.
Born, Erik W.
Stapleton, Seth
Arnold, Todd
Dyck, Markus
Laidre, Kristin L.
Lunn, Nicholas J.
Regehr, Eric V.
An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation
title An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation
title_full An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation
title_fullStr An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation
title_full_unstemmed An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation
title_short An on-ice aerial survey of the Kane Basin polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulation
title_sort on-ice aerial survey of the kane basin polar bear (ursus maritimus) subpopulation
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8776663/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35125636
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02974-6
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