Back to the future: Pacific walrus stress response and reproductive status in a changing Arctic

• Main Author: Charapata, Patrick Maron
• Other Authors: Horstmann, Larissa, Misarti, Nicole, Wooller, Matthew
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Fairbanks; Pacific; Climate change; Odobenus rosmarus; Sea ice; Alaska; walrus*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/6809

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016 The Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) is an iconic Arctic marine mammal that Alaska Natives rely on as a subsistence, economic, and cultural resource. A decrease in critical sea ice habitat and uncertain population numbers have led to walruses being listed as a candidate for the Endangered Species Act. However, there is no clear understanding of how walruses might be affected by climate change. The first objective of this study was to describe how bone steroid hormone concentrations relate to commonly used blubber and serum steroid hormone concentrations (i.e., cortisol, estradiol, progesterone and testosterone), because steroid hormones have not been extracted from marine mammal bone until now. Bone, blubber, and serum were collected from individual adult walruses (n = 34) harvested by Native Alaskan subsistence hunters during 2014 and 2015. Complete turnover of cortical bone in a walrus skeleton was estimated as ~33 years, approximately the lifetime of a walrus. Results showed bone and blubber steroid hormone concentrations were similar (P = 0.96, 0.51, 0.27 for cortisol, estradiol, and progesterone (males only), respectively), but not testosterone (males and females, P = 0.003) nor progesterone in blubber of female walruses (P = 0.007). Progesterone concentrations in males were significantly correlated between bone and blubber (R² = 0.51, P < 0.001). Estradiol measured in bone had high interannual variability (P < 0.001), indicating a shorter reservoir time in cortical bone compared with other hormones in this study, possibly due to local production of estradiol in walrus bone. Overall, bone serves as a long-term reservoir of steroid hormone concentrations compared with circulating serum concentrations. Progesterone measured in blubber can be compared with bone progesterone, but local production of estradiol in bone should be taken into account when interpreting these concentrations in cortical bone. The second objective of this study was ...