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Abstract: To stimulate the discussion about possible reasons for whale strandings, we suggest solar driven geomagnetic variations as one further explanation for this phenomenon. Following this hypothesis that whales may strand due to geomagnetic disturbances we compared annual means of stranding eve...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Klaus Heinrich Vanselow, Klaus Ricklefs, Franciscus Colijn
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Strandings
sperm whales
sun spot cycle
solar activity
geomagnetic anomalies
temperature anomalies
North Sea
Physeter macrocephalus
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.621.2269
http://www.uni-kiel.de/ftzwest/ag2/mitarb/paper/Vanselow-et-al_2009_89TOMBJ.pdf
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Summary:Abstract: To stimulate the discussion about possible reasons for whale strandings, we suggest solar driven geomagnetic variations as one further explanation for this phenomenon. Following this hypothesis that whales may strand due to geomagnetic disturbances we compared annual means of stranding event numbers of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) along the North Sea coasts with yearly averaged numbers of geomagnetic anomaly intensities (aa-indices). Based on a Generalised Additive Model technique, our new approach suggests that over the last 400 years 20% of the stranding events can be correlated with aa-index variabilities. Furthermore, the increased stranding numbers of the last decades could be explained by the exceptional intensive disturbances of the earth’s magnetic field in the same period.

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