Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features
Marine predators face the challenge of reliably finding prey that is patchily distributed in space and time. Predators make movement decisions at multiple spatial and temporal scales, yet we have a limited understanding of how habitat selection at multiple scales translates into foraging performance...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9382224 2023-05-15T15:45:13+02:00 Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features Fahlbusch, James A. Czapanskiy, Max F. Calambokidis, John Cade, David E. Abrahms, Briana Hazen, Elliott L. Goldbogen, Jeremy A. 2022-08-31 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9382224/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35975432 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1180 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9382224/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35975432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1180 © 2022 The Authors. https://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/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Proc Biol Sci Ecology Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1180 2022-09-04T00:44:53Z Marine predators face the challenge of reliably finding prey that is patchily distributed in space and time. Predators make movement decisions at multiple spatial and temporal scales, yet we have a limited understanding of how habitat selection at multiple scales translates into foraging performance. In the ocean, there is mounting evidence that submesoscale (i.e. less than 100 km) processes drive the formation of dense prey patches that should hypothetically provide feeding hot spots and increase predator foraging success. Here, we integrated environmental remote-sensing with high-resolution animal-borne biologging data to evaluate submesoscale surface current features in relation to the habitat selection and foraging performance of blue whales in the California Current System. Our study revealed a consistent functional relationship in which blue whales disproportionately foraged within dynamic aggregative submesoscale features at both the regional and feeding site scales across seasons, regions and years. Moreover, we found that blue whale feeding rates increased in areas with stronger aggregative features, suggesting that these features indicate areas of higher prey density. The use of fine-scale, dynamic features by foraging blue whales underscores the need to take these features into account when designating critical habitat and may help inform strategies to mitigate the impacts of human activities for the species. Text Blue whale PubMed Central (PMC) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 1981 |
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ftpubmed |
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English |
topic |
Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Fahlbusch, James A. Czapanskiy, Max F. Calambokidis, John Cade, David E. Abrahms, Briana Hazen, Elliott L. Goldbogen, Jeremy A. Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
topic_facet |
Ecology |
description |
Marine predators face the challenge of reliably finding prey that is patchily distributed in space and time. Predators make movement decisions at multiple spatial and temporal scales, yet we have a limited understanding of how habitat selection at multiple scales translates into foraging performance. In the ocean, there is mounting evidence that submesoscale (i.e. less than 100 km) processes drive the formation of dense prey patches that should hypothetically provide feeding hot spots and increase predator foraging success. Here, we integrated environmental remote-sensing with high-resolution animal-borne biologging data to evaluate submesoscale surface current features in relation to the habitat selection and foraging performance of blue whales in the California Current System. Our study revealed a consistent functional relationship in which blue whales disproportionately foraged within dynamic aggregative submesoscale features at both the regional and feeding site scales across seasons, regions and years. Moreover, we found that blue whale feeding rates increased in areas with stronger aggregative features, suggesting that these features indicate areas of higher prey density. The use of fine-scale, dynamic features by foraging blue whales underscores the need to take these features into account when designating critical habitat and may help inform strategies to mitigate the impacts of human activities for the species. |
format |
Text |
author |
Fahlbusch, James A. Czapanskiy, Max F. Calambokidis, John Cade, David E. Abrahms, Briana Hazen, Elliott L. Goldbogen, Jeremy A. |
author_facet |
Fahlbusch, James A. Czapanskiy, Max F. Calambokidis, John Cade, David E. Abrahms, Briana Hazen, Elliott L. Goldbogen, Jeremy A. |
author_sort |
Fahlbusch, James A. |
title |
Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
title_short |
Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
title_full |
Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
title_fullStr |
Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
title_full_unstemmed |
Blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
title_sort |
blue whales increase feeding rates at fine-scale ocean features |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9382224/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35975432 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1180 |
genre |
Blue whale |
genre_facet |
Blue whale |
op_source |
Proc Biol Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9382224/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35975432 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1180 |
op_rights |
© 2022 The Authors. https://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/ (https://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/rspb.2022.1180 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
289 |
container_issue |
1981 |
_version_ |
1766379553374076928 |