Physiological Constraints to Diving: Defining the Capacity of Belugas to Alter Foraging Behaviors in Response to Habitat Degradation

• Main Author: Noren, Shawn
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Axiom Data Science 2020
• Subjects: Hudson; Hudson Bay; Beluga; Beluga*; Churchill River; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.24431/rw1k450; https://search.dataone.org/#view/10.24431/rw1k450

The data were collected to describe how the physiology that supports diving of beluga whales matures after birth. Specifically, body mass, hemoglobin content (blood oxygen store) and myoglobin content (muscle oxygen store) were measured for belugas at birth through adulthood. The goal of this investigation was to quantify age-specific morphological parameters (body mass) and physiological parameters [oxygen stores in the blood (hemoglobin) and muscle (myoglobin)] to support the determination of age-specific aerobic dive limits (cADL). cADLs define age-specific abilities for transiting under sea-ice and diving to depth for prolonged durations to support foraging activities. Long-term, longitudinal measurements of body mass and hematology (red blood cell number, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean cell hemoglobin, and mean cell hemoglobin content) from birth through adulthood in belugas housed at John G. Shedd Aquarium provided historical records of these parameters. Male and female data were analyzed separately. Muscle samples were obtained from neonatal through adult beluga strandings (Cooke Inlet), subsistence hunts (Pt. Lay), and deaths of belugas housed at John G. Shedd Aquarium (founding animals from Churchill River in western Hudson Bay). These muscle samples were analyzed in the laboratory for myoglobin content and acid buffering capacity. Due to limited sample size, data from male and female specimen were combined to provide age-specific myoglobin levels, as has been done in previous investigations on cetaceans. Age-specific myoglobin contents were also used in the determination of the cADLs. Ultimately, calculations of age-specific aerobic dive limit provided for age-specific maximum dive depth, and age-specific submerged search times just below the waters surface (as if navigating under sea ice) and at dive depths of 200 m, 300 m, and 400 m. This dataset consists of 7 CSV files: gompertz_growth_values.csv, female_beluga_cadl.csv, age-specific_dive_capacity_1.csv, age-specific_dive_capacity_2.csv, neonate_values.csv, and male_beluga_cadl.csv.