Passive acoustic data provide a prime source of information on marine mammaluddistribution and behaviour. Particularly in the Southern Ocean, where ship-based dataudcollection can be severely hampered by weather and ice conditions, passive acoustic monitoringud(PAM) of marine mammals forms an important source of year-round information on acousticudpresence. Array data can be used to obtain directional information on the species present in theudrecordings to derive movement patterns. Acoustic arrays furthermore allow spatial comparisonsudof marine mammal distribution patterns and habitat affinities when the acoustic presenceudinformation is linked to local environmental parameters. Here we present two passive acousticudmonitoring arrays that have been implemented by the Alfred Wegener Institute’s Ocean AcousticudLab and serve the investigation of marine mammals on different spatial scales. During theudaustral summer season 2012/2013 a local scale array of sea ice-based time-synchronized passiveudacoustic recorders was deployed in Atka Bay, Antarctica. The PASATA (PASsive AcousticudTracking of Antarctic marine mammals) project investigates coastal local habitat usage andudcommunication ranges of marine mammals by integrating positional information fromudtriangulation of calling animals and information from environmental parameters. For studies onudmarine mammals over larger spatial scales, 23 passive acoustic recorders were deployed inudoceanographic moorings in the Southern Ocean, reaching from the Greenwich meridianudthroughout the Weddell Sea to the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The inter-disciplinary nature ofudthis mooring array allows combining in-situ oceanographic measurements with passive acousticuddata on marine mammal occurrence. It furthermore forms the first basin-wide, long term array,udat least in the Southern Ocean. Here, we describe both arrays, the recorder types used, andudtechnical and logistic requirements for PAM in a polar environment.ud
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