Physiological responses of narwhals to anthropogenic noise: a case study with seismic airguns and vessel traffic in the Arctic ...

• Main Authors: Williams, Terrie, Blackwell, Susanna, Tervo, Outi, Garde, Eva, Strander Sinding, Mikkel, Richter, Beau, Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2022
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Arctic; Greenland; Scoresby; East Greenland; narwhal*; Scoresby Sound
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m0cfxpp69; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.m0cfxpp69

Limited polar geographical range, narrowly defined migratory routes, and deep-diving behaviors make narwhals exceptionally vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbances including oceanic noise. Although behavioral studies indicate marked responses of cetaceans to disturbance, the link between fear reactions and possible injury from noise exposure is limited for most species. To address this, we deployed custom-made heart rate-accelerometer-depth recorders on 13 adult narwhals in Scoresby Sound, East Greenland across a five-year period (2014-2018). Physiological responses of the cetaceans were monitored in the absence (n = 13 animals) or presence (n = 2 animals across 3 acoustic events) of experimentally directed, seismic airgun pulses and associated vessels (full volume source level = 241 dB re 1 μPa-m). We found that anthropogenic noise resulted in marked cardiovascular, respiratory and locomotor reactions by two narwhals exposed to seismic pulses across three acoustic events. The general behavioral response to ... : Please refer to the manuscript and contact the corresponding author for more details. ...