Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
Abstract Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadi...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8367 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8367 |
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crwiley:10.1002/ece3.8367 2024-06-02T08:02:32+00:00 Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range Ferguson, Steven H. Yurkowski, David J. Hudson, Justine M. Edkins, Tera Willing, Cornelia Watt, Cortney A. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Fisheries and Oceans Canada 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8367 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8367 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ecology and Evolution volume 11, issue 23, page 17314-17322 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 journal-article 2021 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 2024-05-03T12:01:30Z Abstract Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic in the core area of the species’ geographic range have larger body size than their conspecifics at the southern range periphery in Hudson Bay (HB). We investigated the mechanism for this north and south divergence as it relates to ovarian reproductive activity (ORA = total corpora) that combines morphometric data with ovarian corpora counted from female reproductive tracts. Our study aim was to assess the relative influence of age and body size of female beluga whale on ORA in the two populations. Female beluga whale ORA increased more quickly with age (63% partial variation explained) in BB than in HB (41%). In contrast, body length in HB female beluga whales accounted for considerably more of the total variation (12% vs. 1%) in ORA compared to BB whales. We speculate that female HB beluga whale ORA was more strongly linked with body length due to higher population density resulting in food competition that favors the energetic advantages of larger body size during seasonal food limitations. Understanding the evolutionary mechanism of how ORA varies across a species’ range will assist conservation efforts in anticipating and mitigating future challenges associated with a warming planet. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Hudson Bay Wiley Online Library Arctic Baffin Bay Hudson Hudson Bay Ora ENVELOPE(7.517,7.517,62.581,62.581) Ecology and Evolution 11 23 17314 17322 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic in the core area of the species’ geographic range have larger body size than their conspecifics at the southern range periphery in Hudson Bay (HB). We investigated the mechanism for this north and south divergence as it relates to ovarian reproductive activity (ORA = total corpora) that combines morphometric data with ovarian corpora counted from female reproductive tracts. Our study aim was to assess the relative influence of age and body size of female beluga whale on ORA in the two populations. Female beluga whale ORA increased more quickly with age (63% partial variation explained) in BB than in HB (41%). In contrast, body length in HB female beluga whales accounted for considerably more of the total variation (12% vs. 1%) in ORA compared to BB whales. We speculate that female HB beluga whale ORA was more strongly linked with body length due to higher population density resulting in food competition that favors the energetic advantages of larger body size during seasonal food limitations. Understanding the evolutionary mechanism of how ORA varies across a species’ range will assist conservation efforts in anticipating and mitigating future challenges associated with a warming planet. |
author2 |
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Fisheries and Oceans Canada |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ferguson, Steven H. Yurkowski, David J. Hudson, Justine M. Edkins, Tera Willing, Cornelia Watt, Cortney A. |
spellingShingle |
Ferguson, Steven H. Yurkowski, David J. Hudson, Justine M. Edkins, Tera Willing, Cornelia Watt, Cortney A. Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
author_facet |
Ferguson, Steven H. Yurkowski, David J. Hudson, Justine M. Edkins, Tera Willing, Cornelia Watt, Cortney A. |
author_sort |
Ferguson, Steven H. |
title |
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
title_short |
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
title_full |
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
title_fullStr |
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
title_full_unstemmed |
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
title_sort |
larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.8367 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/ece3.8367 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(7.517,7.517,62.581,62.581) |
geographic |
Arctic Baffin Bay Hudson Hudson Bay Ora |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Baffin Bay Hudson Hudson Bay Ora |
genre |
Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Hudson Bay |
genre_facet |
Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Hudson Bay |
op_source |
Ecology and Evolution volume 11, issue 23, page 17314-17322 ISSN 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 |
container_title |
Ecology and Evolution |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
23 |
container_start_page |
17314 |
op_container_end_page |
17322 |
_version_ |
1800747013239734272 |