The narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is the northernmost cetacean in the world that occupies a habitat characterized by environmental extremes. The basic objectives of this work are to 1) identify spatial and temporal sub-population specific movement patterns and elucidate stock discreteness for sustainable harvest management, 2) to evaluate narwhal habitat selection relative to population viability in relation to prey resources and natural or anthropogenic changes in the highly specialized pack-ice habitat, and 3) to develop methods for deriving resource selection and habitat use models from satellite-linked radio telemetry data. In addition, we are testing the feasibility of using tagged narwhals as autonomous oceanographic sampling platforms to monitor changes in deep-water temperatures (>1,800 m) in offshore Baffin Bay as part of a project funded by NOAA Ocean Exploration. The results of this research identify processes key to determining effects of climate change on narwhal adaptation, fitness, and survival, and demonstrate that narwhals are important indicators for change in the offshore habitats in the high Arctic – a hostile and inaccessible area about which little is known and where few other species can provide similar insight. This project is funded by the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. See Dissertation and Publications.
