Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range

Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic i...

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Published in:Ecology and Evolution
Main Authors: Ferguson, Steven H., Yurkowski, David J., Hudson, Justine M., Edkins, Tera, Willing, Cornelia, Watt, Cortney A.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Subjects:
Ora
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367
id ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8668808
record_format openpolar
spelling ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8668808 2023-05-15T15:09:39+02:00 Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range Ferguson, Steven H. Yurkowski, David J. Hudson, Justine M. Edkins, Tera Willing, Cornelia Watt, Cortney A. 2021-11-23 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://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 Ecol Evol Research Articles Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 2021-12-26T01:30:27Z Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic in the core area of the species’ geographic range have larger body size than their conspecifics at the southern range periphery in Hudson Bay (HB). We investigated the mechanism for this north and south divergence as it relates to ovarian reproductive activity (ORA = total corpora) that combines morphometric data with ovarian corpora counted from female reproductive tracts. Our study aim was to assess the relative influence of age and body size of female beluga whale on ORA in the two populations. Female beluga whale ORA increased more quickly with age (63% partial variation explained) in BB than in HB (41%). In contrast, body length in HB female beluga whales accounted for considerably more of the total variation (12% vs. 1%) in ORA compared to BB whales. We speculate that female HB beluga whale ORA was more strongly linked with body length due to higher population density resulting in food competition that favors the energetic advantages of larger body size during seasonal food limitations. Understanding the evolutionary mechanism of how ORA varies across a species’ range will assist conservation efforts in anticipating and mitigating future challenges associated with a warming planet. Text Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas Hudson Bay PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Baffin Bay Hudson Hudson Bay Ora ENVELOPE(7.517,7.517,62.581,62.581) Ecology and Evolution 11 23 17314 17322
institution Open Polar
collection PubMed Central (PMC)
op_collection_id ftpubmed
language English
topic Research Articles
spellingShingle Research Articles
Ferguson, Steven H.
Yurkowski, David J.
Hudson, Justine M.
Edkins, Tera
Willing, Cornelia
Watt, Cortney A.
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
topic_facet Research Articles
description Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic in the core area of the species’ geographic range have larger body size than their conspecifics at the southern range periphery in Hudson Bay (HB). We investigated the mechanism for this north and south divergence as it relates to ovarian reproductive activity (ORA = total corpora) that combines morphometric data with ovarian corpora counted from female reproductive tracts. Our study aim was to assess the relative influence of age and body size of female beluga whale on ORA in the two populations. Female beluga whale ORA increased more quickly with age (63% partial variation explained) in BB than in HB (41%). In contrast, body length in HB female beluga whales accounted for considerably more of the total variation (12% vs. 1%) in ORA compared to BB whales. We speculate that female HB beluga whale ORA was more strongly linked with body length due to higher population density resulting in food competition that favors the energetic advantages of larger body size during seasonal food limitations. Understanding the evolutionary mechanism of how ORA varies across a species’ range will assist conservation efforts in anticipating and mitigating future challenges associated with a warming planet.
format Text
author Ferguson, Steven H.
Yurkowski, David J.
Hudson, Justine M.
Edkins, Tera
Willing, Cornelia
Watt, Cortney A.
author_facet Ferguson, Steven H.
Yurkowski, David J.
Hudson, Justine M.
Edkins, Tera
Willing, Cornelia
Watt, Cortney A.
author_sort Ferguson, Steven H.
title Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_short Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_full Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_fullStr Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_full_unstemmed Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_sort larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
publishDate 2021
url http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367
long_lat ENVELOPE(7.517,7.517,62.581,62.581)
geographic Arctic
Baffin Bay
Hudson
Hudson Bay
Ora
geographic_facet Arctic
Baffin Bay
Hudson
Hudson Bay
Ora
genre Arctic
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay
Baffin
Beluga
Beluga whale
Beluga*
Delphinapterus leucas
Hudson Bay
genre_facet Arctic
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay
Baffin
Beluga
Beluga whale
Beluga*
Delphinapterus leucas
Hudson Bay
op_source Ecol Evol
op_relation http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367
op_rights © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://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/ece3.8367
container_title Ecology and Evolution
container_volume 11
container_issue 23
container_start_page 17314
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