Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 17;13(1):4436.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-31665-x.

Occurrence and patterns of fin whale songs reveal alternative migration strategies in Svalbard Islands, Norway

E Papale  1   2 , M Pelagatti  3 , G Pedrazzi  4 , G Buscaino  3
Affiliations

Occurrence and patterns of fin whale songs reveal alternative migration strategies in Svalbard Islands, Norway

E Papale et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The Arctic marine environment is highly affected by global warming with notable changes in habitat conditions, which have great consequences on migrating species. For example, the timing of their migration can be altered leading to changes in their occurrence in suitable areas, which are critical for their survival. In this study, seven years of acoustic data were analysed in Svalbard Islands from 2014 to 2020, revealing that the occurrence of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) happened all year-round. The sea surface temperature recorded reveals conditions which could be favorable for these species to persist until the Polar Night. The occurrence of songs indicated that certain individuals did not undertake the migratory journey through the southern breeding grounds, possibly using the area for mating purposes. The analyses of the Inter-Note-Interval (INI) demonstrated that over the years songs with different patterns were found. This suggests that either the fin whales are able to switch their INI patterns or that populations with different INIs are visiting during the Winter. Therefore, this study unveils the undertaking of an alternative strategy to migration movements, and the possible potential origin of the fin whales overwintering in Svalbard.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of Kongsfjorden in Svalbard Islands and of the acoustic recorder (green dot). The map was generated in R package version 0.9.2.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Spectrograms (Hamming window, FFT = 1024, overlap = 87.5%) of fin whale songs consisting of (a) 20 and 130 Hz notes indicating the inter-Note-Interval (INI), measured from the beginning of a note to the beginning of the following note of the same type, and (b) 130 Hz notes, doublet 20 Hz notes and backbeats. Both spectrograms were generated with RX 3.0.2.812.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Fin whale acoustic presence per week (presence rate) along the 7 years considered. White dots represent absence of data. (B) Response curves of the variables in the Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) performed testing PR as a function of the predictors Year and Month. The solid lines represent the smoothed estimates by the GAM, while the grey areas represent the approximate 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(A) Fin whale calls per week (detection rate) along the 7 years considered. White dots represent absence of data. (B) Response curves of the variables in the Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) performed testing DR as a function of the predictors Year and Month. The solid lines represent the smoothed estimates by the GAM, while the grey areas represent the approximate 95% confidence intervals.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Weekly fin whale presence rate (in blue) and mean sea water temperature (in red). Light grey strips represent periods with no data.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Histogram representing relative percentages of 20-Hz and 130 Hz per month (1–12) over the entire dataset.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Inter-note-interval distribution along the singing seasons (from September to April) recorded.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Huntington HP, et al. Evidence suggests potential transformation of the Pacific Arctic ecosystem is underway. Nat. Clim. Change. 2020;10(4):342–348. doi: 10.1038/s41558-020-0695-2. - DOI
    1. Andrews AJ, et al. Boreal marine fauna from the Barents Sea disperse to Arctic Northeast Greenland. Sci. Rep. 2019;9(1):1–8. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42097-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. MacLeod CD. Global climate change, range changes and potential implications for the conservation of marine cetaceans: A review and synthesis. Endanger. Species Res. 2009;7(2):125–136. doi: 10.3354/esr00197. - DOI
    1. Moore SE. Marine mammals as ecosystem sentinels. J. Mammal. 2008;89(3):534–540. doi: 10.1644/07-MAMM-S-312R1.1. - DOI
    1. Storrie L, Lydersen C, Andersen M, Wynn RB, Kovacs KM. Determining the species assemblage and habitat use of cetaceans in the Svalbard Archipelago, based on observations from 2002 to 2014. Polar Res. 2018;2018:37.

Publication types