Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens
Denned polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are invisible under the snow, therefore winter-time petroleum exploration and development activities in northern Alaska have potential to disturb maternal polar bears and their cubs. Previous research determined forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery could detec...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7046283 2023-05-15T18:42:25+02:00 Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens Smith, Tom S. Amstrup, Steven C. Kirschhoffer, B. J. York, Geoffrey 2020-02-27 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7046283/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32106278 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222744 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7046283/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32106278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222744 © 2020 Smith et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222744 2020-03-15T01:39:04Z Denned polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are invisible under the snow, therefore winter-time petroleum exploration and development activities in northern Alaska have potential to disturb maternal polar bears and their cubs. Previous research determined forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery could detect many polar bear maternal dens under the snow, but also identified limitations of FLIR imagery. We evaluated the efficacy of FLIR-surveys conducted by oil-field operators from 2004–2016. Aerial FLIR surveys detected 15 of 33 (45%) and missed 18 (55%) of the dens known to be within surveyed areas. While greater adherence to previously recommended protocols may improve FLIR detection rates, the physical characteristics of polar bear maternal dens, increasing frequencies of weather unsuitable for FLIR detections—caused by global warming, and competing false positives are likely to prevent FLIR surveys from detecting maternal dens reliably enough to afford protections consonant with increasing global threats to polar bear welfare. Text Ursus maritimus Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) PLOS ONE 15 2 e0222744 |
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Research Article Smith, Tom S. Amstrup, Steven C. Kirschhoffer, B. J. York, Geoffrey Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
Denned polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are invisible under the snow, therefore winter-time petroleum exploration and development activities in northern Alaska have potential to disturb maternal polar bears and their cubs. Previous research determined forward looking infrared (FLIR) imagery could detect many polar bear maternal dens under the snow, but also identified limitations of FLIR imagery. We evaluated the efficacy of FLIR-surveys conducted by oil-field operators from 2004–2016. Aerial FLIR surveys detected 15 of 33 (45%) and missed 18 (55%) of the dens known to be within surveyed areas. While greater adherence to previously recommended protocols may improve FLIR detection rates, the physical characteristics of polar bear maternal dens, increasing frequencies of weather unsuitable for FLIR detections—caused by global warming, and competing false positives are likely to prevent FLIR surveys from detecting maternal dens reliably enough to afford protections consonant with increasing global threats to polar bear welfare. |
format |
Text |
author |
Smith, Tom S. Amstrup, Steven C. Kirschhoffer, B. J. York, Geoffrey |
author_facet |
Smith, Tom S. Amstrup, Steven C. Kirschhoffer, B. J. York, Geoffrey |
author_sort |
Smith, Tom S. |
title |
Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
title_short |
Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
title_full |
Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
title_fullStr |
Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
title_full_unstemmed |
Efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
title_sort |
efficacy of aerial forward-looking infrared surveys for detecting polar bear maternal dens |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7046283/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32106278 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222744 |
genre |
Ursus maritimus Alaska |
genre_facet |
Ursus maritimus Alaska |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7046283/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32106278 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222744 |
op_rights |
© 2020 Smith et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222744 |
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PLOS ONE |
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15 |
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2 |
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e0222744 |
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