Data from: Physiological, morphological, and ecological tradeoffs influence vertical habitat use of deep-diving toothed-whales in the Bahamas ...

• Main Authors: Joyce, Trevor W., Durban, John W., Claridge, Diane E., Dunn, Charlotte A., Fearnbach, Holly, Parsons, Kim M., Andrews, Russel D., Ballance, Lisa T.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2018
• Subjects: deep-sea ecosystems; Globicephala macrorhynchus; Mesoplodon densirostris; Diving behaviour; Ziphius cavirostris; Physeter macrocephalus; Argos; Odontoceti; Peponocephala electra; Cetacea; foraging ecology; Holocene; toothed whales
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.14v89; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.14v89

Dive capacity among toothed whales (suborder: Odontoceti) has been shown to generally increase with body mass in a relationship closely linked to the allometric scaling of metabolic rates. However, two odontocete species tagged in this study, the Blainville’s beaked whale Mesoplodon densirostris and the Cuvier’s beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris, confounded expectations of a simple allometric relationship, with exceptionally long (mean: 46.1 min & 65.4 min) and deep dives (mean: 1129 m & 1179 m), and comparatively small body masses (med.: 842.9 kg & 1556.7 kg). These two species also exhibited exceptionally long recovery periods between successive deep dives, or inter-deep-dive intervals (M. densirostris: med. 62 min; Z. cavirostris: med. 68 min). We examined competing hypotheses to explain observed patterns of vertical habitat use based on body mass, oxygen binding protein concentrations, and inter-deep-dive intervals in an assemblage of five sympatric toothed whales species in the Bahamas. ... : TAGSA summary of tagged individuals. The variables DURATION_MAX and IDDI_MED were calculated from the behavior log returned by Argos satellites from SPLASH (Mk10a) transmitter tags produced by Wildlife Computers. The variable MASS_MED was calculated from models of body mass as a function of standard length. The variable MB derived from a variety of literature sources.ARGOSLocation estimates and time stamps returned by Argos satellites from SPOT5 and SPLASH (Mk10a) tags produced by Wildlife Computers. Location error information derives from Argos Kalman filtering algorithm.BEHAVA log of dives and surface intervals returned by Argos satellites from SPLASH (Mk10a) transmitter tags produced by Wildlife Computers. Depths represent the maximum depth recorded on a dive, the duration of which was defined as the interval between successive dry measurements on the wet-dry sensor. Dives that did not exceed 15m was logged as Surface Time.SERIESA moderate resolution time series of time-depth recorder (TDR) measurements ...