Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator?
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are large predators that occupy the top trophic position in the world's oceans and as such may have important roles in marine ecosystem dynamics. Although the possible top-down effects of killer whale predation on populations of their prey have received much recent...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:2817236 2023-05-15T17:03:24+02:00 Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. Olesiuk, Peter F. Balcomb, Kenneth C. 2010-02-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2817236 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19755531 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0468 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2817236 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19755531 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0468 © 2009 The Royal Society Population Ecology Text 2010 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0468 2013-09-02T21:13:20Z Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are large predators that occupy the top trophic position in the world's oceans and as such may have important roles in marine ecosystem dynamics. Although the possible top-down effects of killer whale predation on populations of their prey have received much recent attention, little is known of how the abundance of these predators may be limited by bottom-up processes. Here we show, using 25 years of demographic data from two populations of fish-eating killer whales in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, that population trends are driven largely by changes in survival, and that survival rates are strongly correlated with the availability of their principal prey species, Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Our results suggest that, although these killer whales may consume a variety of fish species, they are highly specialized and dependent on this single salmonid species to an extent that it is a limiting factor in their population dynamics. Other ecologically specialized killer whale populations may be similarly constrained to a narrow range of prey species by culturally inherited foraging strategies, and thus are limited in their ability to adapt rapidly to changing prey availability. Text Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale PubMed Central (PMC) Pacific Biology Letters 6 1 139 142 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Population Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Population Ecology Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. Olesiuk, Peter F. Balcomb, Kenneth C. Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
topic_facet |
Population Ecology |
description |
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are large predators that occupy the top trophic position in the world's oceans and as such may have important roles in marine ecosystem dynamics. Although the possible top-down effects of killer whale predation on populations of their prey have received much recent attention, little is known of how the abundance of these predators may be limited by bottom-up processes. Here we show, using 25 years of demographic data from two populations of fish-eating killer whales in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, that population trends are driven largely by changes in survival, and that survival rates are strongly correlated with the availability of their principal prey species, Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Our results suggest that, although these killer whales may consume a variety of fish species, they are highly specialized and dependent on this single salmonid species to an extent that it is a limiting factor in their population dynamics. Other ecologically specialized killer whale populations may be similarly constrained to a narrow range of prey species by culturally inherited foraging strategies, and thus are limited in their ability to adapt rapidly to changing prey availability. |
format |
Text |
author |
Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. Olesiuk, Peter F. Balcomb, Kenneth C. |
author_facet |
Ford, John K. B. Ellis, Graeme M. Olesiuk, Peter F. Balcomb, Kenneth C. |
author_sort |
Ford, John K. B. |
title |
Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
title_short |
Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
title_full |
Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
title_fullStr |
Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
title_sort |
linking killer whale survival and prey abundance: food limitation in the oceans' apex predator? |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2817236 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19755531 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0468 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
genre_facet |
Killer Whale Orca Orcinus orca Killer whale |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2817236 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19755531 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0468 |
op_rights |
© 2009 The Royal Society |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2009.0468 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
139 |
op_container_end_page |
142 |
_version_ |
1766057271712808960 |