Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga
This study was funded by the Species at Risk programme of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Decades after a ban on hunting, and despite focused management interventions, the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) population has failed to recover. We applied a population viab...
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/24288 2023-07-02T03:31:49+02:00 Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga Williams, Rob Lacy, Robert C. Ashe, Erin Hall, Ailsa Plourde, Stéphane McQuinn, Ian H. Lesage, Véronique NERC University of St Andrews. School of Biology University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland 2021-11-08T16:30:13Z 9 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24288 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 eng eng Marine Pollution Bulletin Williams , R , Lacy , R C , Ashe , E , Hall , A , Plourde , S , McQuinn , I H & Lesage , V 2021 , ' Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga ' , Marine Pollution Bulletin , vol. 173 , no. Part B , 113096 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 0025-326X PURE: 276566628 PURE UUID: 2e091e8c-1bf5-4435-a540-d9418ec3f129 RIS: urn:EC7A6A86A3A8F0414D1BB239CD2D808D Scopus: 85118129577 ORCID: /0000-0002-7562-1771/work/102725395 WOS: 000719305700008 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24288 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 NE/R015007/1 Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. Beluga Population viability analysis Climate change Cetacean GE Environmental Sciences GC Oceanography DAS SDG 13 - Climate Action GE GC Journal article 2021 ftstandrewserep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 2023-06-13T18:29:26Z This study was funded by the Species at Risk programme of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Decades after a ban on hunting, and despite focused management interventions, the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) population has failed to recover. We applied a population viability analysis to simulate the responses of the SLE beluga population across a wide range of variability and uncertainty under current and projected changes in environmental and climate-mediated conditions. Three proximate threats to recovery were explored: ocean noise; contaminants; and prey limitation. Even the most optimistic scenarios failed to achieve the reliable positive population growth needed to meet current recovery targets. Here we show that predicted effects of climate change may be a more significant driver of SLE beluga population dynamics than the proximate threats we considered. Aggressive mitigation of all three proximate threats will be needed to build the population's resilience and allow the population to persist long enough for global actions to mitigate climate change to take effect. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository Canada Marine Pollution Bulletin 173 113096 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
Beluga Population viability analysis Climate change Cetacean GE Environmental Sciences GC Oceanography DAS SDG 13 - Climate Action GE GC |
spellingShingle |
Beluga Population viability analysis Climate change Cetacean GE Environmental Sciences GC Oceanography DAS SDG 13 - Climate Action GE GC Williams, Rob Lacy, Robert C. Ashe, Erin Hall, Ailsa Plourde, Stéphane McQuinn, Ian H. Lesage, Véronique Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga |
topic_facet |
Beluga Population viability analysis Climate change Cetacean GE Environmental Sciences GC Oceanography DAS SDG 13 - Climate Action GE GC |
description |
This study was funded by the Species at Risk programme of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Decades after a ban on hunting, and despite focused management interventions, the endangered St. Lawrence Estuary (SLE) beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) population has failed to recover. We applied a population viability analysis to simulate the responses of the SLE beluga population across a wide range of variability and uncertainty under current and projected changes in environmental and climate-mediated conditions. Three proximate threats to recovery were explored: ocean noise; contaminants; and prey limitation. Even the most optimistic scenarios failed to achieve the reliable positive population growth needed to meet current recovery targets. Here we show that predicted effects of climate change may be a more significant driver of SLE beluga population dynamics than the proximate threats we considered. Aggressive mitigation of all three proximate threats will be needed to build the population's resilience and allow the population to persist long enough for global actions to mitigate climate change to take effect. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed |
author2 |
NERC University of St Andrews. School of Biology University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Williams, Rob Lacy, Robert C. Ashe, Erin Hall, Ailsa Plourde, Stéphane McQuinn, Ian H. Lesage, Véronique |
author_facet |
Williams, Rob Lacy, Robert C. Ashe, Erin Hall, Ailsa Plourde, Stéphane McQuinn, Ian H. Lesage, Véronique |
author_sort |
Williams, Rob |
title |
Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga |
title_short |
Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga |
title_full |
Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga |
title_fullStr |
Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga |
title_sort |
climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of st. lawrence estuary beluga |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24288 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas |
genre_facet |
Beluga Beluga* Delphinapterus leucas |
op_relation |
Marine Pollution Bulletin Williams , R , Lacy , R C , Ashe , E , Hall , A , Plourde , S , McQuinn , I H & Lesage , V 2021 , ' Climate change complicates efforts to ensure survival and recovery of St. Lawrence Estuary beluga ' , Marine Pollution Bulletin , vol. 173 , no. Part B , 113096 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 0025-326X PURE: 276566628 PURE UUID: 2e091e8c-1bf5-4435-a540-d9418ec3f129 RIS: urn:EC7A6A86A3A8F0414D1BB239CD2D808D Scopus: 85118129577 ORCID: /0000-0002-7562-1771/work/102725395 WOS: 000719305700008 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/24288 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 NE/R015007/1 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.113096 |
container_title |
Marine Pollution Bulletin |
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173 |
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113096 |
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1770271231109496832 |