Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling?
Populations of seals, sea lions, and sea otters have sequentially collapsed over large areas of the northern North Pacific Ocean and southern Bering Sea during the last several decades. A bottom-up nutritional limitation mechanism induced by physical oceanographic change or competition with fisherie...
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Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC218740 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14526101 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 |
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:218740 2023-05-15T15:43:45+02:00 Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? Springer, A. M. Estes, J. A. van Vliet, G. B. Williams, T. M. Doak, D. F. Danner, E. M. Forney, K. A. Pfister, B. 2003-10-14 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC218740 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14526101 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC218740 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14526101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 Copyright © 2003, The National Academy of Sciences Biological Sciences Text 2003 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 2013-08-29T14:59:50Z Populations of seals, sea lions, and sea otters have sequentially collapsed over large areas of the northern North Pacific Ocean and southern Bering Sea during the last several decades. A bottom-up nutritional limitation mechanism induced by physical oceanographic change or competition with fisheries was long thought to be largely responsible for these declines. The current weight of evidence is more consistent with top-down forcing. Increased predation by killer whales probably drove the sea otter collapse and may have been responsible for the earlier pinniped declines as well. We propose that decimation of the great whales by post-World War II industrial whaling caused the great whales' foremost natural predators, killer whales, to begin feeding more intensively on the smaller marine mammals, thus “fishing-down” this element of the marine food web. The timing of these events, information on the abundance, diet, and foraging behavior of both predators and prey, and feasibility analyses based on demographic and energetic modeling are all consistent with this hypothesis. Text Bering Sea PubMed Central (PMC) Bering Sea Pacific Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 21 12223 12228 |
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English |
topic |
Biological Sciences |
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Biological Sciences Springer, A. M. Estes, J. A. van Vliet, G. B. Williams, T. M. Doak, D. F. Danner, E. M. Forney, K. A. Pfister, B. Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
topic_facet |
Biological Sciences |
description |
Populations of seals, sea lions, and sea otters have sequentially collapsed over large areas of the northern North Pacific Ocean and southern Bering Sea during the last several decades. A bottom-up nutritional limitation mechanism induced by physical oceanographic change or competition with fisheries was long thought to be largely responsible for these declines. The current weight of evidence is more consistent with top-down forcing. Increased predation by killer whales probably drove the sea otter collapse and may have been responsible for the earlier pinniped declines as well. We propose that decimation of the great whales by post-World War II industrial whaling caused the great whales' foremost natural predators, killer whales, to begin feeding more intensively on the smaller marine mammals, thus “fishing-down” this element of the marine food web. The timing of these events, information on the abundance, diet, and foraging behavior of both predators and prey, and feasibility analyses based on demographic and energetic modeling are all consistent with this hypothesis. |
format |
Text |
author |
Springer, A. M. Estes, J. A. van Vliet, G. B. Williams, T. M. Doak, D. F. Danner, E. M. Forney, K. A. Pfister, B. |
author_facet |
Springer, A. M. Estes, J. A. van Vliet, G. B. Williams, T. M. Doak, D. F. Danner, E. M. Forney, K. A. Pfister, B. |
author_sort |
Springer, A. M. |
title |
Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
title_short |
Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
title_full |
Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
title_fullStr |
Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sequential megafaunal collapse in the North Pacific Ocean: An ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
title_sort |
sequential megafaunal collapse in the north pacific ocean: an ongoing legacy of industrial whaling? |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC218740 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14526101 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 |
geographic |
Bering Sea Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Bering Sea Pacific |
genre |
Bering Sea |
genre_facet |
Bering Sea |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC218740 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14526101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2003, The National Academy of Sciences |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1635156100 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
100 |
container_issue |
21 |
container_start_page |
12223 |
op_container_end_page |
12228 |
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1766377942675357696 |