Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean
Understanding the seasonal movements and distribution patterns of migratory species over ocean basin scales is vital for appropriate conservation and management measures. However, assessing populations over remote regions is challenging, particularly if they are rare. Blue whales (Balaenoptera muscu...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3742792 2023-05-15T13:41:29+02:00 Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean Samaran, Flore Stafford, Kathleen M. Branch, Trevor A. Gedamke, Jason Royer, Jean-Yves Dziak, Robert P. Guinet, Christophe 2013-08-13 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3742792 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23967221 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071561 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3742792 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23967221 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071561 This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. PDM CC0 Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071561 2013-09-05T03:50:04Z Understanding the seasonal movements and distribution patterns of migratory species over ocean basin scales is vital for appropriate conservation and management measures. However, assessing populations over remote regions is challenging, particularly if they are rare. Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus spp) are an endangered species found in the Southern and Indian Oceans. Here two recognized subspecies of blue whales and, based on passive acoustic monitoring, four “acoustic populations” occur. Three of these are pygmy blue whale (B.m. brevicauda) populations while the fourth is the Antarctic blue whale (B.m. intermedia). Past whaling catches have dramatically reduced their numbers but recent acoustic recordings show that these oceans are still important habitat for blue whales. Presently little is known about the seasonal movements and degree of overlap of these four populations, particularly in the central Indian Ocean. We examined the geographic and seasonal occurrence of different blue whale acoustic populations using one year of passive acoustic recording from three sites located at different latitudes in the Indian Ocean. The vocalizations of the different blue whale subspecies and acoustic populations were recorded seasonally in different regions. For some call types and locations, there was spatial and temporal overlap, particularly between Antarctic and different pygmy blue whale acoustic populations. Except on the southernmost hydrophone, all three pygmy blue whale acoustic populations were found at different sites or during different seasons, which further suggests that these populations are generally geographically distinct. This unusual blue whale diversity in sub-Antarctic and sub-tropical waters indicates the importance of the area for blue whales in these former whaling grounds. Text Antarc* Antarctic Balaenoptera musculus Blue whale PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Indian The Antarctic PLoS ONE 8 8 e71561 |
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Research Article Samaran, Flore Stafford, Kathleen M. Branch, Trevor A. Gedamke, Jason Royer, Jean-Yves Dziak, Robert P. Guinet, Christophe Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean |
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Research Article |
description |
Understanding the seasonal movements and distribution patterns of migratory species over ocean basin scales is vital for appropriate conservation and management measures. However, assessing populations over remote regions is challenging, particularly if they are rare. Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus spp) are an endangered species found in the Southern and Indian Oceans. Here two recognized subspecies of blue whales and, based on passive acoustic monitoring, four “acoustic populations” occur. Three of these are pygmy blue whale (B.m. brevicauda) populations while the fourth is the Antarctic blue whale (B.m. intermedia). Past whaling catches have dramatically reduced their numbers but recent acoustic recordings show that these oceans are still important habitat for blue whales. Presently little is known about the seasonal movements and degree of overlap of these four populations, particularly in the central Indian Ocean. We examined the geographic and seasonal occurrence of different blue whale acoustic populations using one year of passive acoustic recording from three sites located at different latitudes in the Indian Ocean. The vocalizations of the different blue whale subspecies and acoustic populations were recorded seasonally in different regions. For some call types and locations, there was spatial and temporal overlap, particularly between Antarctic and different pygmy blue whale acoustic populations. Except on the southernmost hydrophone, all three pygmy blue whale acoustic populations were found at different sites or during different seasons, which further suggests that these populations are generally geographically distinct. This unusual blue whale diversity in sub-Antarctic and sub-tropical waters indicates the importance of the area for blue whales in these former whaling grounds. |
format |
Text |
author |
Samaran, Flore Stafford, Kathleen M. Branch, Trevor A. Gedamke, Jason Royer, Jean-Yves Dziak, Robert P. Guinet, Christophe |
author_facet |
Samaran, Flore Stafford, Kathleen M. Branch, Trevor A. Gedamke, Jason Royer, Jean-Yves Dziak, Robert P. Guinet, Christophe |
author_sort |
Samaran, Flore |
title |
Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean |
title_short |
Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean |
title_full |
Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal and Geographic Variation of Southern Blue Whale Subspecies in the Indian Ocean |
title_sort |
seasonal and geographic variation of southern blue whale subspecies in the indian ocean |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3742792 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23967221 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071561 |
geographic |
Antarctic Indian The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Indian The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Balaenoptera musculus Blue whale |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Balaenoptera musculus Blue whale |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3742792 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23967221 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071561 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. |
op_rightsnorm |
PDM CC0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071561 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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8 |
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e71561 |
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1766151311598813184 |