Global climate drives southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) population dynamics

• Published in: Biology Letters
• Main Authors: Leaper, Russell, Cooke, Justin, Trathan, Phil, Reid, Keith, Rowntree, Victoria, Payne, Roger
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2006
• Subjects: Research Article; Argentina; Pacific; Southern Right Whale
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618902; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148385; https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0431

Sea surface temperature (SST) time-series from the southwest Atlantic and the El Niño 4 region in the western Pacific were compared to an index of annual calving success of the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) breeding in Argentina. There was a strong relationship between right whale calving output and SST anomalies at South Georgia in the autumn of the previous year and also with mean El Niño 4 SST anomalies delayed by 6 years. These results extend similar observations from other krill predators and show clear linkages between global climate signals and the biological processes affecting whale population dynamics.