The summer soundscape of a shallow-water estuary used by beluga whales in the western Canadian Arctic

Abstract

The soundscape is an important habitat component for marine animals. In the Arctic, marine conditions are changing rapidly due to sea ice loss and increased anthropogenic activities such as shipping, which will influence the soundscape. Here, we assess the contributors to the summer soundscape in the shallow waters of the Mackenzie River estuary within the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area in the western Canadian Arctic, a core summering habitat for beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas Pallas, 1776). We collected passive acoustic data during the summer over four years, and assessed the influence of physical variables, beluga whale vocalizations, and boat noise on sound pressure levels in three frequency bands (low: 0.2-1 kHz; medium: 1-10 kHz; high: 10-48 kHz) to quantify the soundscape. Wind speed, wave height, beluga vocalizations, and boat noise were all large contributors to the soundscape in various frequency bands. The soundscape varied to a lesser degree between sites, time of day, and with tide height, but remained relatively constant between years. This study is the first detailed description of a shallow summer soundscape in the western Canadian Arctic, an important habitat for beluga whales, and can be used as a baseline to monitor future changes during this season.

Fish sounds and boat noise are prominent soundscape contributors in an urban European estuary

“…This relation of wind speed with sound level is mostly a consequence of the relation between wind speed and water wave height and energy. This relation is well known (Wenz, 1962) and has been reported in other shallow waters (Haxel et al, 2013;Halliday et al, 2020). Changes in tide level and tidal current, which are related to tide ebbing and flowing, also influenced non-linearly the sound level.…”

Environmental drivers of beluga whale distribution in a changing climate: a case study of summering aggregations in the Mackenzie Estuary and Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area

“…(Simard et al 2014), bathymetry (Hornby et al 2016), seabed compositions (Whalen et al 2020), river current, or upwelling (Williams et al 2006;Hauser et al 2015). Ecological influences such as predation (Anderson et al 2017) and competition (Guisan et al 2017), or anthropogenic disturbances due to shipping (Halliday et al 2020), may also represent valid explanations of beluga distribution patterns throughout the season. Finally, beluga presence in the estuary may be explained by their social behaviour (gaming; Fraker et al 1979a) or by their cultural learning and memory (O'Corry-Crowe et al 2020) rather than optimal environmental conditions.…”

Citizen science and machine learning: Interdisciplinary approach to non-invasively monitoring a northern marine ecosystem

“…Globally, many populations of beluga are threatened by direct and indirect effects of climate change. Indirect effects include increased human activity in the north with accompanying increases in noise (Halliday et al, 2019;Vergara et al, 2021) and pollution (Moore et al, 2020), while direct effects include changing sea ice conditions, shifting prey availability, and increased exposure to novel pathogens (Lair et al, 2016).…”