Global climate drives southern right whale ( Eubalaena australis ) population dynamics

• Published in: Biology Letters
• Main Authors: Leaper, Russell, Cooke, Justin, Trathan, Phil, Reid, Keith, Rowntree, Victoria, Payne, Roger
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2006
• Subjects: Southern Right Whale
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0431; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0431; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0431

Sea surface temperature (SST) time-series from the southwest Atlantic and the El Niño 4 region in the western Pacific were compared to an index of annual calving success of the southern right whale ( Eubalaena australis ) breeding in Argentina. There was a strong relationship between right whale calving output and SST anomalies at South Georgia in the autumn of the previous year and also with mean El Niño 4 SST anomalies delayed by 6 years. These results extend similar observations from other krill predators and show clear linkages between global climate signals and the biological processes affecting whale population dynamics.