Dear colleagues, I am pleased and honoured, on behalf of my coauthors, to announce our new paper on the ecology of Black Sea harbour porpoises: Seasonal and diel patterns in Black Sea harbour porpoise acoustic activity in 2020–2022 Julia Ivanchikova, Nick Tregenza, Dimitar Popov, Galina Meshkova, Romulus-Marian Paiu, Costin Timofte, Ayaka Amaha Öztürk, Arda M. Tonay, Ayhan Dede, Uğur Özsandıkçı, Natia Kopaliani, Davit Dekanoidze, Zurab Gurielidze, Karina Vishnyakova, Philip S. Hammond, Pavel Gol'din (2024) Ecology and Evolution. 2024;14:e70182. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70182 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ece3.70182 The Black Sea is a semi-enclosed inland sea with an unevenly distributed extensive coastal shelf area and anoxic deep waters. It is inhabited by common and bottlenose dolphins, as well as harbour porpoises, all represented by local subspecies. Between September 2020 and October 2022, 19 F-PODs deployed by research teams from Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine collected data on acoustic activity of Black Sea harbour porpoises. Strong seasonal and diel patterns were found, which varied in three regions. In the south-eastern part of the Black Sea, harbour porpoise acoustic activity was higher from January to May, with a peak in April. This pattern agrees with the seasonal anchovy migration from the winter spawning grounds in warmer waters in the south-eastern region to feeding grounds on the productive shallow north-west shelf. The diel pattern showed strong nocturnal acoustic activity, which is consistent with anchovy vertical migration. Porpoises on the western side of the Black Sea exhibited a bimodal seasonal pattern in acoustic activity, with a larger peak in April and a smaller one in October. Diel activity was primarily nocturnal. On the north-west shelf, harbour porpoise acoustic activity was mostly recorded during the warm period from April to October. The diel pattern showed activity mainly during daylight with two peaks: a smaller one approximately at dawn and a larger one at dusk. This pattern is similar to the vertical migrations of sprat. Overall, the results of the study were consistent with the prey being an important driver of seasonal and diel dynamics of harbour porpoise acoustic activity. Feel free to contact me on any question regarding this research (julia.ivanchikova@gmail.com). Julia Ivanchikova PhD | Research Assistant Sea Mammal Research Unit Scottish Oceans Institute University of St Andrews KY16 8LB Scotland [cid:74389466-175e-4584-80ec-bcee3c868f29] You can make a difference in the war in Ukraine – donate here now: Come Back Alive<https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate-en/#donate-army-card-monthly> [cid:e179e882-4c01-44c9-bee8-9f54c55aaac0]
