The ecological importance of glacial habitats to high Arctic odontocetes
Abstract
We propose a five-year project to investigate the importance of glacial fjord ocean and ice conditions to high Arctic odontocetes. T"he project couples to the NASA-funded Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) project, where data sharing and collaborations will improve dat""a 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 monceros) to fill data gaps on the one-tim"e OMG multi-beam echo sounding survey of sea floor bathymetry in Melville Bay, Greenland, b) combine year-round passive acoustic mon"itoring (PAM) and remote visual detections of narwhals from land-based cameras to understand how physical properties of glacial fjor"ds (e.g., subsurface Atlantic Water temperature and salinity, surface ice cover) influence narwhal occurrence, relative abundance, a""nd acoustic behavior, c) collaborate with OMG PIs to add oceanographic instrumentation to narwhal moorings (CTDs and standalone temp""erature 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
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2017
- Source ID
- N000141712774
Entities
People
- Kristin L. Laidre
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Washington