Short description
In this project, you will do species distribution modeling for one of our most common toothed whales, the harbour porpoise, based on data from a variety of sources. You will combine data from IMR’s incidental sightings database and sightings registered at artsobservasjoner.no and then relate sightings to environmental predictor variables (such as seabed substrate, bathymetry, temperature, salinity, tidal cycle, prey availability, etc.) to estimate the suitability of different times and areas for harbour porpoises. You will use a maximum entropy (maxent) modelling approach that is suited to work with presence-only data.
Relevance
This harbour porpoise plays an important ecological role in coastal marine environments in Norway and elsewhere, but it is threatened by impacts of human activities (especially fisheries bycatch). By developing this harbour porpoise maxent model, you may help identify key areas that might be important for marine planning and harbour porpoise conservation efforts.
Field work
Field work in related area/domain (i.e. marine mammal science) is possible and encouraged, by joining IMR in Troms? on one or more activities in the field.
Data readiness
Sightings data are available from 1964-2025, with nearly 10,000 sightings. Environmental data available from EMODnet, Copernicus Marine Service, The Norwegian Meterological Institute, and other sources. Prey data may also be available for some relevant harbour porpoise prey species.
Contact persons
?ystein Langangen (UIO), André Moan (IMR)
Recommended skills/interests
Experience with R and GIS-work in R (e.g. R packages sf, raster/terra) will be a huge advantage. Understanding basic statistics and species distribution modeling will also be beneficial.