Maritime traffic alters distribution of the harbour porpoise in the North Sea.

Autor: Pigeault R; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany., Ruser A; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany., Ramírez-Martínez NC; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany; Fundación Macuáticos Colombia, Calle 27 # 79-167, Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia., Geelhoed SCV; Wageningen Marine Research, Den Helder, the Netherlands., Haelters J; Institute of Natural Sciences, Ostend, Belgium., Nachtsheim DA; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany., Schaffeld T; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany., Sveegaard S; Department of Ecoscience, Marine Mammal Research, Aarhus University, Denmark., Siebert U; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany; Department of Ecoscience, Marine Mammal Research, Aarhus University, Denmark., Gilles A; Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstraße 6, 25761 Büsum, Germany. Electronic address: Anita.Gilles@tiho-hannover.de.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Marine pollution bulletin [Mar Pollut Bull] 2024 Nov; Vol. 208, pp. 116925. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 10.
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116925
Abstrakt: The North Sea is one of the most industrialised marine regions globally. We integrated cetacean-dedicated aerial surveys (2015-2022) with environmental covariates and ship positions from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to investigate the disturbance radius and duration on harbour porpoise distribution. This study is based on 81,511 km of line-transect survey effort, during which 6511 harbour porpoise groups (8597 individuals) were sighted. Several proxies for ship disturbance were compared, identifying those best explaining the observed distribution. Better model performance was achieved by integrating maritime traffic, with frequent traffic representing the most significant disturbance to harbour porpoise distribution. Porpoises avoided areas frequented by numerous vessels up to distances of 9 km. The number of ships and average approach distance over time improved model performance, while reasons for the lower performance of predicted ship sound levels remain unclear. This study demonstrates the short-term effects of maritime traffic on harbour porpoise distribution.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: