Identification of soundscape components and their temporal patterns in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard Archipelago

• Published in: Polar Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Kongsfjorden; Sea ice melting; Wind speed; Biological sounds; Ship sounds; Sea ice concentration; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Svalbard; Svalbard Archipelago; bearded seal; Kongsfjord*; Polar Science; Sea ice; walrus*
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=16336; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00016215/

Time series measurements of ocean ambient sound were carried out using an autonomous passive acoustic measurement system deployed in Kongsfjorden, Arctic Ocean, between July 2015 and April 2016. Geophysical soundscape components, particularly that of sea ice melting and wind noise, were identified. The biological sounds produced by walruses in the form of knocking and tapping sequences fall in the range 0.2–4 kHz, and the bearded seal trill loud vocalizations occur between 0.35 and 1.2 kHz. The anthropogenic sources are mainly connected to the passenger and patrol vessels, with sound levels dominant at frequencies below 0.7 kHz. During summer, the sound levels are high due to the combined effect of geophysical and anthropogenic sources, whereas they decrease during the winter and spring seasons since the sea-ice cover effectively shields the sea surface at this time, preventing wind-generated sound. This study illustrates the seasonal variability of the soundscape components, and discusses the relationship of sea ice concentration to ambient sound levels in the Arctic fjords using the passive acoustic monitoring approach.