Polar coastal soundscapes: Tridimensional mapping of benthic biophony and ice geophony with a compact sensor array

Polar areas show fast changes linked to global warming. The reduction of the ice pack and the melting of the ice sheet modify the conditions of living of marine fauna. We propose the simultaneous monitoring of the ice and benthic fauna using passive acoustics. Thanks to a compact sensor array of 4 hydrophones (2m*2m*2m), we detected, localized and mapped in three dimensions ({azimuth, elevation} or {x, y, z}) the biophonic and geophonic contributions made up of short and wideband pulses. Tridimensional maps of benthic biophony and ice geophony of Antarctic and Arctic 7 days-long recording sessions (2015, 2016) are built and analyzed over a surface of the order of 1 km². Benthic invertebrates emit high energetic pulses with peak frequencies ranging from 2 to 55 kHz, most of them below 15 kHz. Geophony is structured into two parts. The ice sheet, located several kilometers or tens of kilometers away, creates a stable spatial distribution of low energetic pulses (representing the majority of pulses in the soundscape) modulated by the temporal variability. The movements of isolated icebergs or pack ice produce localized acoustic events identifiable by the high sound levels and the stable peak frequencies of the emitted pulses.