Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis

Sperm whales interact with commercially important groundfish fisheries offshore in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This study aims to use stable isotope analysis to better understand the trophic variability of sperm whales and their potential prey, and to use dietary mixing models to estimate the importan...

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Published in:Royal Society Open Science
Main Authors: Wild, Lauren A., Mueter, Franz, Witteveen, Briana, Straley, Janice M.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: The Royal Society 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7137980/
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110
id ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7137980
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spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7137980 2023-05-15T18:26:39+02:00 Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis Wild, Lauren A. Mueter, Franz Witteveen, Briana Straley, Janice M. 2020-03-11 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7137980/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7137980/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110 © 2020 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110 2020-04-12T01:02:55Z Sperm whales interact with commercially important groundfish fisheries offshore in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This study aims to use stable isotope analysis to better understand the trophic variability of sperm whales and their potential prey, and to use dietary mixing models to estimate the importance of prey species to sperm whale diets. We analysed tissue samples from sperm whales and seven potential prey (five groundfish and two squid species). Samples were analysed for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, and diet composition was estimated using Bayesian isotopic mixing models. Mixing model results suggest that an isotopically combined sablefish/dogfish group, skates and rockfish make up the largest proportion of sperm whale diets (35%, 28% and 12%) in the GOA. The top prey items of whales that interact more frequently with fishing vessels consisted of skates (49%) and the sablefish/dogfish group (24%). This is the first known study to provide an isotopic baseline of adult male sperm whales and these adult groundfish and offshore squid species, and to assign contributions of prey to whale diets in the GOA. This study provides information to commercial fishermen and fisheries managers to better understand trophic connections of important commercial species. Text Sperm whale Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Gulf of Alaska Royal Society Open Science 7 3 191110
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
spellingShingle Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
Wild, Lauren A.
Mueter, Franz
Witteveen, Briana
Straley, Janice M.
Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis
topic_facet Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
description Sperm whales interact with commercially important groundfish fisheries offshore in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This study aims to use stable isotope analysis to better understand the trophic variability of sperm whales and their potential prey, and to use dietary mixing models to estimate the importance of prey species to sperm whale diets. We analysed tissue samples from sperm whales and seven potential prey (five groundfish and two squid species). Samples were analysed for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, and diet composition was estimated using Bayesian isotopic mixing models. Mixing model results suggest that an isotopically combined sablefish/dogfish group, skates and rockfish make up the largest proportion of sperm whale diets (35%, 28% and 12%) in the GOA. The top prey items of whales that interact more frequently with fishing vessels consisted of skates (49%) and the sablefish/dogfish group (24%). This is the first known study to provide an isotopic baseline of adult male sperm whales and these adult groundfish and offshore squid species, and to assign contributions of prey to whale diets in the GOA. This study provides information to commercial fishermen and fisheries managers to better understand trophic connections of important commercial species.
format Text
author Wild, Lauren A.
Mueter, Franz
Witteveen, Briana
Straley, Janice M.
author_facet Wild, Lauren A.
Mueter, Franz
Witteveen, Briana
Straley, Janice M.
author_sort Wild, Lauren A.
title Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis
title_short Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis
title_full Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis
title_fullStr Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis
title_full_unstemmed Exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska through stable isotope analysis
title_sort exploring variability in the diet of depredating sperm whales in the gulf of alaska through stable isotope analysis
publisher The Royal Society
publishDate 2020
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7137980/
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110
geographic Gulf of Alaska
geographic_facet Gulf of Alaska
genre Sperm whale
Alaska
genre_facet Sperm whale
Alaska
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7137980/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110
op_rights © 2020 The Authors.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191110
container_title Royal Society Open Science
container_volume 7
container_issue 3
container_start_page 191110
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