Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
Mammalian body condition is an important individual fitness metric as it affects both survival and reproductive success. The ability to accurately measure condition has key implications for predicting individual and population health, and therefore monitoring the population‐level effects of changing...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5433969 2023-05-15T17:59:09+02:00 Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) Kershaw, Joanna L. Sherrill, Meredith Davison, Nicholas J. Brownlow, Andrew Hall, Ailsa J. 2017-04-09 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433969/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2891 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433969/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2891 © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Original Research Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2891 2017-05-21T00:27:48Z Mammalian body condition is an important individual fitness metric as it affects both survival and reproductive success. The ability to accurately measure condition has key implications for predicting individual and population health, and therefore monitoring the population‐level effects of changing environments. No consensus currently exists on the best measure to quantitatively estimate body condition in many species, including cetaceans. Here, two measures of body condition were investigated in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). First, the most informative morphometric body condition index was identified. The mass/length2 ratio was the most appropriate morphometric index of 10 indices tested, explaining 50% of the variation in condition in stranded, male porpoises with different causes of death and across age classes (n = 291). Mass/length2 was then used to evaluate a second measure, blubber cortisol concentration, as a metabolic condition marker. Cortisol is the main glucocorticoid hormone involved in the regulation of lipolysis and overall energy balance in mammals, and concentrations could provide information on physiological state. Blubber cortisol concentrations did not significantly vary around the girth (n = 20), but there was significant vertical stratification through the blubber depth with highest concentrations in the innermost layer. Concentrations in the dorsal, outermost layer were representative of concentrations through the full blubber depth, showed variation by sex and age class, and were negatively correlated with mass/length2. Using this species as a model for live cetaceans from which standard morphometric measurements cannot be taken, but from which blubber biopsy samples are routinely collected, cortisol concentrations in the dorsal, outermost blubber layer could potentially be used as a biomarker of condition in free‐ranging animals. Text Phocoena phocoena PubMed Central (PMC) Ecology and Evolution 7 10 3494 3506 |
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Original Research Kershaw, Joanna L. Sherrill, Meredith Davison, Nicholas J. Brownlow, Andrew Hall, Ailsa J. Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) |
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Original Research |
description |
Mammalian body condition is an important individual fitness metric as it affects both survival and reproductive success. The ability to accurately measure condition has key implications for predicting individual and population health, and therefore monitoring the population‐level effects of changing environments. No consensus currently exists on the best measure to quantitatively estimate body condition in many species, including cetaceans. Here, two measures of body condition were investigated in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). First, the most informative morphometric body condition index was identified. The mass/length2 ratio was the most appropriate morphometric index of 10 indices tested, explaining 50% of the variation in condition in stranded, male porpoises with different causes of death and across age classes (n = 291). Mass/length2 was then used to evaluate a second measure, blubber cortisol concentration, as a metabolic condition marker. Cortisol is the main glucocorticoid hormone involved in the regulation of lipolysis and overall energy balance in mammals, and concentrations could provide information on physiological state. Blubber cortisol concentrations did not significantly vary around the girth (n = 20), but there was significant vertical stratification through the blubber depth with highest concentrations in the innermost layer. Concentrations in the dorsal, outermost layer were representative of concentrations through the full blubber depth, showed variation by sex and age class, and were negatively correlated with mass/length2. Using this species as a model for live cetaceans from which standard morphometric measurements cannot be taken, but from which blubber biopsy samples are routinely collected, cortisol concentrations in the dorsal, outermost blubber layer could potentially be used as a biomarker of condition in free‐ranging animals. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kershaw, Joanna L. Sherrill, Meredith Davison, Nicholas J. Brownlow, Andrew Hall, Ailsa J. |
author_facet |
Kershaw, Joanna L. Sherrill, Meredith Davison, Nicholas J. Brownlow, Andrew Hall, Ailsa J. |
author_sort |
Kershaw, Joanna L. |
title |
Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) |
title_short |
Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) |
title_full |
Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) |
title_fullStr |
Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) |
title_sort |
evaluating morphometric and metabolic markers of body condition in a small cetacean, the harbor porpoise (phocoena phocoena) |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433969/ https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2891 |
genre |
Phocoena phocoena |
genre_facet |
Phocoena phocoena |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433969/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2891 |
op_rights |
© 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2891 |
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Ecology and Evolution |
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7 |
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10 |
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3494 |
op_container_end_page |
3506 |
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1766167916571525120 |