The Ecological Importance of Glacial Habitats to High Arctic Odontocetes
Abstract
We propose a four-year project to investigate the importance of glacial fjord ocean and ice conditions to high Arctic odontocetes. The project couples to the NASA-funded Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project, where data sharing and collaborations will improve data products and ecological inference, meeting both NASA physical oceanography and ONR marine mammal program priorities. The goals of the project are to a) use previously collected data from tagged diving narwhals (Monodon monoceros) to fill data gaps on the one-time OMG multi-beam echo sounding survey of sea floor bathymetry in Melville Bay, Greenland, b) combine year-round passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and remote visual detections of narwhals from land-based cameras to understand how physical properties of glacial fjords (e.g., subsurface Atlantic Water temperature and salinity, surface ice cover) influence narwhal occurrence, relative abundance, and acoustic behavior, c) collaborate with OMG PIs to add oceanographic instrumentation to narwhal moorings (CTDs and standalone temperature sensors) to allow for quantification of the variability of fjord temperature and salinity, and d) use remote camera imagery to quantify glacial ice melange, glacial velocity, and frontal advance and retreat at three sites in Melville Bay.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 23, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1204378
Entities
People
- Kristin L. Laidre
Organizations
- University of Washington