Marine Mammal Associations with Environmental and Prey Variability of Cape Hatteras
Abstract
This project utilizes an existing multi-sensor dataset collected from a >1 year mooring placed on the continental slope off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA. The mooring, previously funded by a DoD DURIP award, was intended to provide extended measurements of the environmental and prey field of marine mammals off Cape Hatteras with the goal of improving our understanding of their ecology. The combination of the instruments and their placement on the instrument package moored mid-water and being co-located with a passive acoustic hydrophone, allowed for whole water column coverage of important variables of ocean physics, prey, and predator. The motivation for the proposed project is to investigate the potential role of the Gulf Stream physical dynamics on the prey field of marine mammals. Interactions of the warm water Gulf Stream Current from the north and the cold-water Labrador Current from the south result in sustained and enhanced prey community that supports an abundant and diverse top predator community. The area off Cape Hatteras is a bio-diversity hotspot, with the greatest number of marine mammal species found across the US East coast. It is an important habitat for a variety of delphinids, sperm whales, and beaked whales, and in the migratory path of North Atlantic right whales. The proposed project addresses a necessary step in toward understanding the connections between the physical habitat and the ecology of top mammal species. It will determine the variability in the environmental and prey field conditions in response to Gulf Stream influences. The proposed project will utilize the existing mooring data to provide the synthesis of the environmental factors that may play an important role in the foraging ecology of deep-diving predators. The specific objectives of this project are to; 1. Describe the temporal variability of Gulf Stream influence on mid- and bottom water of the Cape Hatteras slope. 2. Determine the link between water column variability (e.g. Gulf Stream fronts) and the prey community. The proposed project will provide support for the PI and two MasterÕs-level graduate students at SSU, whose thesis research topics will be centered on these two objectives. Students will be mentored by the PI and will receive training in high-demand technical areas of fisheries acoustics and time-series oceanographic data analysis. The projectÕs objectives will also enhance the teaching in the areas of bioacoustics and big data analysis for all students at SSU by enhancing courses in these areas and helping to train students with necessary quantitative skills and technical expertise. DoD Agencies and technical areas Agency: ONR, Ocean and Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate. Technical areas: Marine Mammals and Biology (Michael Weise, Program Manager), Physical Oceanography (Terri Paluszkiewick, Program Manager), and Research and Education Program for HBCU/MIs (Anthony Smith, ONR Education Program Director).
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 14, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1810474
Entities
People
- Amanda Kaltenberg
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- Savannah State University