Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales
Abstract The western gray whale population is endangered with approximately 175 individuals and 33 known reproductive females. Photo-identification studies were conducted from 2002–2017 during the gray whale foraging season off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia. Despite abundant prey resources, s...
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crspringernat:10.1038/s41598-020-58435-3 2023-05-15T15:37:11+02:00 Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales Gailey, G. Sychenko, O. Tyurneva, O. Yakovlev, Y. Vertyankin, V. van der Wolf, P. Drozdov, K. Zhmaev, I. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58435-3 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58435-3.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58435-3 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 Multidisciplinary journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58435-3 2022-01-04T15:21:51Z Abstract The western gray whale population is endangered with approximately 175 individuals and 33 known reproductive females. Photo-identification studies were conducted from 2002–2017 during the gray whale foraging season off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia. Despite abundant prey resources, significant variation in whales’ body condition, inter-birth intervals and calf survival have been documented with limited understanding of factors that account for the observed variability. We examine sea ice concentrations at their known foraging grounds to define the maximum duration of a “foraging season”. We explore the relationship between foraging season length during a female’s pregnancy and post-weaning calf survival and reproduction. Approximately 77% of the variation in calf survival, which ranged annually from 10–80%, was associated with the duration of the feeding season while the mother was pregnant. Poor body conditions and prolonged inter-birth intervals of western gray whales have also been documented to coincide with shorter duration in feeding seasons found in this study. These results imply that shorter foraging seasons are associated with reduced energy intake by physically limiting the number of days gray whales can forage, and thus sea ice conditions may be one limiting factor affecting growth rates of this endangered population of baleen whales. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales Sakhalin Sea ice Springer Nature (via Crossref) Scientific Reports 10 1 |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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English |
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Multidisciplinary |
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Multidisciplinary Gailey, G. Sychenko, O. Tyurneva, O. Yakovlev, Y. Vertyankin, V. van der Wolf, P. Drozdov, K. Zhmaev, I. Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
topic_facet |
Multidisciplinary |
description |
Abstract The western gray whale population is endangered with approximately 175 individuals and 33 known reproductive females. Photo-identification studies were conducted from 2002–2017 during the gray whale foraging season off northeastern Sakhalin Island, Russia. Despite abundant prey resources, significant variation in whales’ body condition, inter-birth intervals and calf survival have been documented with limited understanding of factors that account for the observed variability. We examine sea ice concentrations at their known foraging grounds to define the maximum duration of a “foraging season”. We explore the relationship between foraging season length during a female’s pregnancy and post-weaning calf survival and reproduction. Approximately 77% of the variation in calf survival, which ranged annually from 10–80%, was associated with the duration of the feeding season while the mother was pregnant. Poor body conditions and prolonged inter-birth intervals of western gray whales have also been documented to coincide with shorter duration in feeding seasons found in this study. These results imply that shorter foraging seasons are associated with reduced energy intake by physically limiting the number of days gray whales can forage, and thus sea ice conditions may be one limiting factor affecting growth rates of this endangered population of baleen whales. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gailey, G. Sychenko, O. Tyurneva, O. Yakovlev, Y. Vertyankin, V. van der Wolf, P. Drozdov, K. Zhmaev, I. |
author_facet |
Gailey, G. Sychenko, O. Tyurneva, O. Yakovlev, Y. Vertyankin, V. van der Wolf, P. Drozdov, K. Zhmaev, I. |
author_sort |
Gailey, G. |
title |
Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
title_short |
Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
title_full |
Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
title_fullStr |
Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
title_sort |
effects of sea ice on growth rates of an endangered population of gray whales |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58435-3 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58435-3.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58435-3 |
genre |
baleen whales Sakhalin Sea ice |
genre_facet |
baleen whales Sakhalin Sea ice |
op_source |
Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58435-3 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766367646255677440 |