Publication Date:
2014-04-15
Description:
Passive acoustic data provide a prime source of information on marine mammal
distribution and behaviour. Particularly in the Southern Ocean, where ship-based data
collection can be severely hampered by weather and ice conditions, passive acoustic monitoring
(PAM) of marine mammals forms an important source of year-round information on acoustic
presence. Array data can be used to obtain directional information on the species present in the
recordings to derive movement patterns. Acoustic arrays furthermore allow spatial comparisons
of marine mammal distribution patterns and habitat affinities when the acoustic presence
information is linked to local environmental parameters. Here we present two passive acoustic
monitoring arrays that have been implemented by the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Ocean Acoustic
Lab and serve the investigation of marine mammals on different spatial scales. During the
austral summer season 2012/2013 a local scale array of sea ice-based time-synchronized passive
acoustic recorders was deployed in Atka Bay, Antarctica. The PASATA (PASsive Acoustic
Tracking of Antarctic marine mammals) project investigates coastal local habitat usage and
communication ranges of marine mammals by integrating positional information from
triangulation of calling animals and information from environmental parameters. For studies on
marine mammals over larger spatial scales, 23 passive acoustic recorders were deployed in
oceanographic moorings in the Southern Ocean, reaching from the Greenwich meridian
throughout the Weddell Sea to the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The inter-disciplinary nature of
this mooring array allows combining in-situ oceanographic measurements with passive acoustic
data on marine mammal occurrence. It furthermore forms the first basin-wide, long term array,
at least in the Southern Ocean. Here, we describe both arrays, the recorder types used, and
technical and logistic requirements for PAM in a polar environment.
Repository Name:
EPIC Alfred Wegener Institut
Type:
Book
,
peerRev
Format:
application/pdf