Varying coefficients correlated velocity models in complex landscapes with boundaries applied to narwhal responses to noise exposure ...

• Main Authors: Delporte, Alexandre, Ditlevsen, Susanne, Samson, Adeline
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: arXiv 2024
• Subjects: Applications stat.AP; FOS: Computer and information sciences; Arctic; Greenland; Scoresby; narwhal*; Scoresby Sound
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2408.03741; https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.03741

Narwhals in the Arctic are increasingly exposed to human activities that can temporarily or permanently threaten their survival by modifying their behavior. We examine GPS data from a population of narwhals exposed to ship and seismic airgun noise during a controlled experiment in 2018 in the Scoresby Sound fjord system in Southeast Greenland. The fjord system has a complex shore line, restricting the behavioral response options for the narwhals to escape the threats. We propose a new continuous-time correlated velocity model with varying coefficients that includes spatial constraints on movement. To assess the sound exposure effect we compare a baseline model for the movement before exposure to a response model for the movement during exposure. Our model, applied to the narwhal data, suggests increased tortuosity of the trajectories as a consequence of the spatial constraints, and further indicates that sound exposure can disturb narwhal motion up to a couple of tens of kilometers. Specifically, we found an ... : 29 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables ...