COMPOSES: COMparing Polar Ocean SoundscapES – Investigating the influence of anthropogenic noise and changing sea ice conditions on the noise budgets and marine mammal communities of two polar regions

由于极地海洋中人为活动的增加，与全球变暖有关的极地海洋海冰状况的变化和海冰的消失伴随着水下噪声污染。极地特有的与冰有关的海洋哺乳动物特别容易受到极地生态系统人为变化的影响，可以作为生态系统变化的哨兵。水声对海洋哺乳动物的交流、导航和感知环境起着至关重要的作用。该项目将调查水声栖息地特征与海洋哺乳动物哨兵物种出现的时空模式和群落动态之间的关系。使用前所未有的两极方法和盆地范围的比较，我们将比较来自两个两极但在海洋学上相似、水下噪音制度截然不同的海洋的数据：几乎纯净的南极韦德尔海和影响北冰洋框架海峡地区的人为噪音。该项目的成果将构成参考声景数据，这些数据将有助于国际努力绘制世界范围内的水下声音模式图。此外，我们将调查南极和北极盆地的噪声预算是如何在空间和时间上构成的。因此，我们将为两个极地盆地生成区域噪声预算，包括所有重要的非生物、生物和人为水下声源的能量贡献的空间和时间变化。通过对韦德尔海和弗拉姆海峡的水下噪声预算进行跨流域比较，并将其与海冰参数相联系，我们将首次提供关于自然声景观和受影响声景观的各种组成部分如何对整体声环境做出贡献的定量见解。最后，这项研究将使用最先进的声学和多样性指标来衡量海洋哺乳动物的物种多样性和群落组成与当地声学和海冰栖息地特征的关系。通过研究物种声学存在与海冰密度、厚度和类型等特征随时间以及在南极和北极之间的关系，该项目将有助于对这些环境特征对与冰相关的海洋哺乳动物的作用提供新的见解。

Anthropogenic global warming related changes in sea ice conditions and sea ice loss in polar oceans are accompanied by underwater noise pollution due to increasing anthropogenic activities in polar seas. Ice-associated marine mammals endemic to polar regions are particularly vulnerable to man-made changes in polar ecosystems and can function as sentinels of ecosystem change. Underwater sound plays a crucial role for marine mammals to communicate, navigate in and perceive their environment. This project will investigate how underwater acoustic habitat characteristics relate to spatio-temporal patterns of marine mammal sentinel species occurrence and community dynamics. Using an unprecedented bi-polar approach and basin-wide scale comparisons, we will compare data from two polar, yet oceanographically similar, oceans with strongly differing underwater noise regimes: the virtually pristine Antarctic Weddell Sea and the anthropogenic noise affected Arctic Fram Strait area. The outcome of this project will constitute reference soundscape data that will contribute towards international efforts to map worldwide patterns of underwater sound. Furthermore, we will investigate how the noise budget is composed over space and time for the Antarctic and Arctic basins. Therefore, we will generate regional noise budgets for both polar basins comprising spatial and temporal variation in the energetic contributions of all significant abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic underwater sound sources. By conducting inter-basin comparisons of the underwater noise budgets of the Weddell Sea and Fram Strait and relating these to sea ice parameters, we will provide the first quantitative insights into how various components of the natural and affected soundscape contribute to the overall acoustic environment. Lastly, this study will employ state-of-the-art acoustic and diversity metrics to gauge marine mammal species diversity and community compositions in relation to local acoustic and sea-ice habitat characteristics. By investigating how species acoustic presence relates to characteristics such as sea-ice concentration, thickness and type both over time and between the Antarctic and the Arctic, this project will contribute new insights on the role of these environmental characteristics for ice-associated marine mammals.