Marine Mammal Hotspots in the Greenland and Barents Seas
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Vol. 659: 3–28, 2021 MARINE ECOLOGY PROGRESS SERIES Published February 4 https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13584 Mar Ecol Prog Ser OPEN FEATURE ARTICLE ACCESS Marine mammal hotspots in the Greenland and Barents Seas Charmain D. Hamilton1,12,*, Christian Lydersen1, Jon Aars1, Martin Biuw2, Andrei N. Boltunov3, Erik W. Born4, Rune Dietz5, Lars P. Folkow6, Dmitri M. Glazov7, Tore Haug2, Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen4, Lisa E. Kettemer6, Kristin L. Laidre4,8, Nils Øien9, Erling S. Nordøy6, Audun H. Rikardsen6,10, Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid4, Varvara Semenova3, Olga V. Shpak7, Signe Sveegaard5, Fernando Ugarte4, Øystein Wiig11, Kit M. Kovacs1 1Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway 2Institute of Marine Research, Fram Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway 3Marine Mammal Research and Expedition Center, Moscow 117218, Russia 4Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland 5Dept of Bioscience, Aarhus University, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark 6Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT - the Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway 7A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russia 8Applied Physics Lab, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA 9Institute of Marine Research, 5005 Bergen, Norway 10The Norwegian Institute of Nature Research, Fram Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway 11Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, 0562 Oslo, Norway 12Present address: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, St. John's, NL A1C 5X1, Canada ABSTRACT: Environmental change and increasing levels of human activity are threats to marine mam- mals in the Arctic. Identifying marine mammal hot - spots and areas of high species richness are essential to help guide management and conservation efforts. Herein, space use based on biotelemetric tracking devices deployed on 13 species (ringed seal Pusa hispida, bearded seal Erignathus barbatus, harbour seal Phoca vitulina, walrus Odobenus rosmarus, harp seal Pagophilus groenlandicus, hooded seal Cysto - phora cristata, polar bear Ursus maritimus, bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus, narwhal Monodon mono- ceros, white whale Delphinapterus leucas, blue whale Balaenoptera musculus, fin whale Balaeno - ptera phy salus and humpback whale Mega ptera Getis–Ord Gi* plots highlight marine mammal hotspots in novaeangliae; total = 585 individuals) in the Green- the Barents region—walruses were one of 13 species studied land and northern Barents Seas between 2005 and (using new custom-GPS tags) Photo: Kit M. Kovacs and 2018 is reported. Getis−Ord Gi* hotspots were calcu- Christian Lydersen; Image: C. D. Hamilton; NPI lated for each species as well as all species combined, and areas of high species richness were identified for summer/autumn (Jun−Dec), winter/ spring (Jan− populations, including denning areas for polar bears May) and the entire year. The marginal ice zone and foraging areas. The hotspots identified herein (MIZ) of the Greenland Sea and northern Barents are also important habitats for seabirds and fishes, Sea, the waters surrounding the Svalbard Archipel- and thus conservation and management measures ago and a few Northeast Greenland coastal sites targeting these regions would benefit multiple were identified as key marine mammal hotspots and groups of Arctic animals. areas of high species richness in this region. Individ- ual hotspots identified areas important for most of the KEY WORDS: Ice-associated marine mammals · Sea - tagged animals, such as common resting, nursing, sonal migrants · Marginal ice zone · Svalbard · East moulting and foraging areas. Location hotspots iden- Greenland · Climate change · Arctic · Biotelemetry tified areas heavily used by segments of the tagged © The authors 2021. Open Access under Creative Commons by *Corresponding author: [email protected] Attribution Licence. Use, distribution and reproduction are un - restricted. Authors and original publication must be credited. Publisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.com 4 Mar Ecol Prog Ser 659: 3–28, 2021 1. INTRODUCTION Svalbard (Lydersen & Kovacs 2010). A variety of cetacean species also use the Greenland and Barents The climate is changing faster in the Arctic than Seas primarily during the summer and autumn as a in any other area on Earth, with air temperatures foraging ground, including the killer whale Orcinus increasing at a rate 2−3 times the global average and orca, the blue whale Balaenoptera musculus, the fin sea-ice extent declining at an alarming rate (IPCC whale Balaenoptera physalus, the humpback whale 2018, Meredith et al. 2019). Arctic endemic marine Megaptera novaeangliae, the minke whale Balaeno - mammals are all strongly ice-affiliated and hence are ptera acutorostrata, the sperm whale Physeter seriously threatened by these changes (see Laidre et macro cephalus, the harbour porpoise Phocoena pho- al. 2008, Kovacs et al. 2011, Meredith et al. 2019 for coena and the white-beaked dolphin Lagen orhyn - details). Numerous consequences of climate change chus albirostris (Kovacs et al. 2009, Storrie et al. have already been documented for this species 2018). group. Declines in Arctic sea ice and associated envi- Sea-ice extent is changing rapidly in the Green- ronmental changes have been linked to shifts in spe- land and Barents Seas, with the duration of sea-ice cies distributions (e.g. Higdon & Ferguson 2009, cover declining faster in the northern Barents Sea Hamilton et al. 2015, 2019a, Rode et al. 2015, Lone et than in any other Arctic region (41.8 d decade−1; al. 2018), changes in trophic relationships (e.g. Watt Laidre et al. 2015a). Environmental conditions in et al. 2016, Hamilton et al. 2017, Yurkowski et al. Svalbard and the Barents Sea changed dramatically 2018) and increased risks of disease (e.g. Van in the winter of 2005−2006, with the altered condi- Wormer et al. 2019). Concomitantly, levels of human tions persisting to the present day. The amount of activity, including shipping, tourism, commercial land-fast ice forming in Svalbard’s fjords declined fishing, and oil and gas exploration and production, sharply, especially along the west coast, and the loca- have increased and are likely to continue to do so in tion of the MIZ shifted northward (Hamilton et al. Arctic regions as sea-ice declines reduce logistical 2015, Pavlova et al. 2019). These changes were due challenges for these industries (Reeves et al. 2014, in part to an increase in the temperature of Atlantic Meredith et al. 2019). Thus, there is an acute need to Water, in combination with more frequent penetra- identify important areas for marine mammals to tion of Atlantic Water across the polar front, which, allow for proper management and conservation of among other effects, has led to a ‘borealization’ of the these species in the context of these multiple stres- fish and invertebrate communities in the Barents Sea sors (e.g. Kovacs et al. 2011, Reeves et al. 2014, (Fossheim et al. 2015, Tverberg et al. 2019). Levels of Yurkowski et al. 2019). human activity in the Greenland and Barents Seas Numerous marine mammal species inhabit the are increasing concomitant with the ongoing envi- Greenland Sea and the northern Barents Sea. Three ronmental changes. The Barents Sea (including the cetacean species (bowhead whale Balaena mystice- Svalbard Archipelago) is one of the most heavily traf- tus, narwhal Monodon monoceros and white whale ficked regions in the High Arctic (Reeves et al. 2014). [beluga whale] Delphinaterus leucas) and the polar For example, the number of cruise vessels docking in bear Ursus maritimus are Arctic endemic species that Longyearbyen, the main settlement in Svalbard, reside in these areas throughout the year (Kovacs et tripled between 2007 and 2019 (Port of Longyear- al. 2009, 2011). This region of the North Atlantic Arc- byen 2020). Fishing activity is also expanding further tic also contains 6 pinniped species. Three of these north as sea ice recedes and currently occurs up to species (ringed seal Pusa hispida, bearded seal Erig- the northern ice edge, north of Svalbard (Reeves et nathus barbatus and Atlantic walrus Odobenus ros- al. 2014, ICES 2019). Hydrocarbon provinces are marus rosmarus) are endemic to the Arctic and live found throughout the Barents Sea and along the in close association with sea ice throughout the year. coast of East Greenland. Noise from air guns is al - The harp seal Pagophilus groenlandicus and hooded ready heard throughout the year in the western Fram seal Cystophora cristata are also dependent on sea Strait (Ahonen et al. 2017). Offshore oil and gas ice. These species use the marginal ice zone (MIZ) in exploration and land-based mining are currently in the Greenland Sea for pupping, nursing and moult- the planning stage in East Greenland; some of these ing during the spring but are generally found in open planned activities would involve extensive year- water areas during the rest of the year (Kovacs et al. round shipping (Reeves et al. 2014). 2009, 2011). The harbour seal Phoca vitulina is gen- The large-scale environmental changes and in - erally considered to be a temperate seal species, but creasing levels of human activities in the Northeast a population resides year round on the west coast of Atlantic Arctic create a need to identify marine mam- Hamilton et al.: Marine mammal hotspots 5 mal hotspots to help guide management and conser- zone with large intra- and inter-annual variability in vation efforts. Observational data are limited from both its location and extent; it varies from being a few these areas due to a combination of factors, including kilometres wide up to hundreds of kilometres wide. few human communities, large expanses of sea ice, The summer productivity pulse makes the MIZ an low levels of light up to 6 mo of the year and the cryp- important foraging area for many species (Sakshaug tic, dispersed nature of many marine mammal spe- et al. 2009), including a variety of marine mammals. cies. In this study, data from 585 biotelemetry instru- ments deployed on 13 species of marine mammals (2005−2019) in the Greenland and northern Barents 2.2.