Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds
Monitoring the body condition of free-ranging marine mammals at different life-history stages is essential to understand their ecology as they must accumulate sufficient energy reserves for survival and reproduction. However, assessing body condition in free-ranging marine mammals is challenging. We...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 2024-09-30T14:38:25+00:00 Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds Aoki, Kagari Isojunno, Saana Bellot, Charlotte Iwata, Takashi Kershaw, Joanna Akiyama, Yu Martín López, Lucía M. Ramp, Christian Biuw, Martin Swift, René Wensveen, Paul J. Pomeroy, Patrick Narazaki, Tomoko Hall, Ailsa Sato, Katsufumi Miller, Patrick J. O. Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B Environment Fund SERDP Office of Naval Research 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 en eng The Royal Society http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 288, issue 1943, page 20202307 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2021 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 2024-09-02T04:21:08Z Monitoring the body condition of free-ranging marine mammals at different life-history stages is essential to understand their ecology as they must accumulate sufficient energy reserves for survival and reproduction. However, assessing body condition in free-ranging marine mammals is challenging. We cross-validated two independent approaches to estimate the body condition of humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) at two feeding grounds in Canada and Norway: animal-borne tags ( n = 59) and aerial photogrammetry ( n = 55). Whales that had a large length-standardized projected area in overhead images (i.e. whales looked fatter) had lower estimated tissue body density (TBD) (greater lipid stores) from tag data. Linking both measurements in a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the true underlying (hidden) tissue body density (uTBD), we found uTBD was lower (−3.5 kg m −3 ) in pregnant females compared to adult males and resting females, while in lactating females it was higher (+6.0 kg m −3 ). Whales were more negatively buoyant (+5.0 kg m −3 ) in Norway than Canada during the early feeding season, possibly owing to a longer migration from breeding areas. While uTBD decreased over the feeding season across life-history traits, whale tissues remained negatively buoyant (1035.3 ± 3.8 kg m −3 ) in the late feeding season. This study adds confidence to the effectiveness of these independent methods to estimate the body condition of free-ranging whales. Article in Journal/Newspaper Megaptera novaeangliae The Royal Society Canada Norway Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288 1943 20202307 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
The Royal Society |
op_collection_id |
crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Monitoring the body condition of free-ranging marine mammals at different life-history stages is essential to understand their ecology as they must accumulate sufficient energy reserves for survival and reproduction. However, assessing body condition in free-ranging marine mammals is challenging. We cross-validated two independent approaches to estimate the body condition of humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) at two feeding grounds in Canada and Norway: animal-borne tags ( n = 59) and aerial photogrammetry ( n = 55). Whales that had a large length-standardized projected area in overhead images (i.e. whales looked fatter) had lower estimated tissue body density (TBD) (greater lipid stores) from tag data. Linking both measurements in a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the true underlying (hidden) tissue body density (uTBD), we found uTBD was lower (−3.5 kg m −3 ) in pregnant females compared to adult males and resting females, while in lactating females it was higher (+6.0 kg m −3 ). Whales were more negatively buoyant (+5.0 kg m −3 ) in Norway than Canada during the early feeding season, possibly owing to a longer migration from breeding areas. While uTBD decreased over the feeding season across life-history traits, whale tissues remained negatively buoyant (1035.3 ± 3.8 kg m −3 ) in the late feeding season. This study adds confidence to the effectiveness of these independent methods to estimate the body condition of free-ranging whales. |
author2 |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B Environment Fund SERDP Office of Naval Research |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Aoki, Kagari Isojunno, Saana Bellot, Charlotte Iwata, Takashi Kershaw, Joanna Akiyama, Yu Martín López, Lucía M. Ramp, Christian Biuw, Martin Swift, René Wensveen, Paul J. Pomeroy, Patrick Narazaki, Tomoko Hall, Ailsa Sato, Katsufumi Miller, Patrick J. O. |
spellingShingle |
Aoki, Kagari Isojunno, Saana Bellot, Charlotte Iwata, Takashi Kershaw, Joanna Akiyama, Yu Martín López, Lucía M. Ramp, Christian Biuw, Martin Swift, René Wensveen, Paul J. Pomeroy, Patrick Narazaki, Tomoko Hall, Ailsa Sato, Katsufumi Miller, Patrick J. O. Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
author_facet |
Aoki, Kagari Isojunno, Saana Bellot, Charlotte Iwata, Takashi Kershaw, Joanna Akiyama, Yu Martín López, Lucía M. Ramp, Christian Biuw, Martin Swift, René Wensveen, Paul J. Pomeroy, Patrick Narazaki, Tomoko Hall, Ailsa Sato, Katsufumi Miller, Patrick J. O. |
author_sort |
Aoki, Kagari |
title |
Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
title_short |
Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
title_full |
Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
title_fullStr |
Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
title_full_unstemmed |
Aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
title_sort |
aerial photogrammetry and tag-derived tissue density reveal patterns of lipid-store body condition of humpback whales on their feeding grounds |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 |
geographic |
Canada Norway |
geographic_facet |
Canada Norway |
genre |
Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 288, issue 1943, page 20202307 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2307 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
288 |
container_issue |
1943 |
container_start_page |
20202307 |
_version_ |
1811641070835990528 |