Annual variation of oceanographic conditions changed migration timing of bowhead whales Balaena mysticetus in the southern Chukchi Sea

Abstract The Chukchi Sea environment changes considerably in physical and biological conditions, driven by the expanding volume of warm Pacific summer water. These environmental changes can affect the migration timing of baleen whales in the southern Chukchi Sea. However, few studies have been conducted in this area to determine the migration timing of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), the only baleen whale species endemic to the Arctic region. In this study, we conducted a fixed passive acoustic monitoring of bowhead whales in the southern Chukchi Sea from July 2012 to October 2015 and compared the occurrence patterns of vocalizations to physical and biological environmental factors. Bowhead whale calls were detected in fall/winter and spring during the ice-freezing and retreating periods, respectively. The fall migration timing of bowhead whales through the southern Chukchi Sea was delayed in the years when the timing of sea ice formation was late, and it formed increasingly later in the years 2013, 2014, and 2012, in that sequence. Moreover, the sea surface temperature decreased before freeze-up, which affected the timing of fall migration of bowhead whales. There was no clear relationship between the occurrence of bowhead whale calls and the abundance of prey, especially in spring, suggesting that most bowhead whales use the southern Chukchi Sea as a corridor during their spring northward migrations. However, the occurrence of bowhead whales and high abundance of zooplankton in October–November present the possibility that bowhead whales expand their feeding area in the southern Chukchi Sea..

Medienart:

Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:44

Enthalten in:

Polar biology - 44(2021), 12 vom: 01. Nov., Seite 2289-2298

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Tsujii, Koki [VerfasserIn]
Otsuki, Mayuko [VerfasserIn]
Akamatsu, Tomonari [VerfasserIn]
Amakasu, Kazuo [VerfasserIn]
Kitamura, Minoru [VerfasserIn]
Kikuchi, Takashi [VerfasserIn]
Fujiwara, Amane [VerfasserIn]
Shirakawa, Hokuto [VerfasserIn]
Miyashita, Kazushi [VerfasserIn]
Mitani, Yoko [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [lizenzpflichtig]

Themen:

Acoustic monitoring
Arctic
Bowhead whale
Inter-annual variability
Migration
Sea ice

Anmerkungen:

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

doi:

10.1007/s00300-021-02960-y

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

OLC207739899X