Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela
CITATION: Dey, S. P. et al. 2021. Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela. Scientific Reports, 11:20896, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2. The original publication is available at https://www.nature.com Seasonal feeding behaviour of humpb...
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ftunstellenbosch:oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/126777 2023-11-12T04:18:18+01:00 Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela Dey, Subhra Prakash Vichi, Marcello Fearon, Giles Seyboth, Elisa Findlay, Ken P. Meynecke, Jan-Olaf De Bie, Jasper Lee, Serena Blyth Samanta, Saumik Barraqueta, Jan-Lukas Menzel Roychoudhury, Alakendra N. Mackey, Brendan 2021-10-22 13 pages : illustrations, maps application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126777 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2 en_ZA eng Nature Dey, S. P. et al. 2021. Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela. Scientific Reports, 11:20896, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2. 2045-2322 (online) doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2 http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126777 Authors retain copyright Humpback whales -- Feeding and feeds Humpback whale -- Behavior Humpback whale -- Migration Oceanography -- Atlantic Coast (Africa West) Article 2021 ftunstellenbosch https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2 2023-10-22T07:43:16Z CITATION: Dey, S. P. et al. 2021. Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela. Scientific Reports, 11:20896, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2. The original publication is available at https://www.nature.com Seasonal feeding behaviour of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) has been observed in the coastal waters of the Southern Benguela where the species has been observed forming super-groups during the austral spring in recent years since 2011. Super-groups are unprecedented densely-packed aggregations of between 20 and 200 individuals in low-latitude waters and their occurrences indicate possible changes in feeding behaviour of the species. We accessed published data on super-groups occurrence in the study area in 2011, 2014 and 2015, and investigated oceanographic drivers that support prey availability in this region. We found that enhanced primary production is a necessary but not sufficient condition for super-groups to occur. Positive chlorophyll anomalies occurring one month prior to the super-group occurrences were identified, but only a concurrent significantly reduced water volume export from the region throughout October were conducive to the aggregations in the specific years. Hydrodynamic model results attributed the anomalous decreased volume export to the strength and orientation of the Goodhope Jet and associated eddy activity. The combination of random enhanced primary production typical of the region and emerging anomalous conditions of reduced water export in October since 2011 resulted in favourable food availability leading to the unique humpback whale aggregations. The novelty of this grouping behaviour is indicative of the lack of such oceanographic conditions in the past. Given the recency of the events, it is difficult to attribute this reduction in ocean transport to climatic regime shifts, and the origin should be likely investigated in the distant water mass interaction with the greater Agulhas system rather than in ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae Stellenbosch University: SUNScholar Research Repository Austral Scientific Reports 11 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Stellenbosch University: SUNScholar Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunstellenbosch |
language |
English |
topic |
Humpback whales -- Feeding and feeds Humpback whale -- Behavior Humpback whale -- Migration Oceanography -- Atlantic Coast (Africa West) |
spellingShingle |
Humpback whales -- Feeding and feeds Humpback whale -- Behavior Humpback whale -- Migration Oceanography -- Atlantic Coast (Africa West) Dey, Subhra Prakash Vichi, Marcello Fearon, Giles Seyboth, Elisa Findlay, Ken P. Meynecke, Jan-Olaf De Bie, Jasper Lee, Serena Blyth Samanta, Saumik Barraqueta, Jan-Lukas Menzel Roychoudhury, Alakendra N. Mackey, Brendan Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela |
topic_facet |
Humpback whales -- Feeding and feeds Humpback whale -- Behavior Humpback whale -- Migration Oceanography -- Atlantic Coast (Africa West) |
description |
CITATION: Dey, S. P. et al. 2021. Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela. Scientific Reports, 11:20896, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2. The original publication is available at https://www.nature.com Seasonal feeding behaviour of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) has been observed in the coastal waters of the Southern Benguela where the species has been observed forming super-groups during the austral spring in recent years since 2011. Super-groups are unprecedented densely-packed aggregations of between 20 and 200 individuals in low-latitude waters and their occurrences indicate possible changes in feeding behaviour of the species. We accessed published data on super-groups occurrence in the study area in 2011, 2014 and 2015, and investigated oceanographic drivers that support prey availability in this region. We found that enhanced primary production is a necessary but not sufficient condition for super-groups to occur. Positive chlorophyll anomalies occurring one month prior to the super-group occurrences were identified, but only a concurrent significantly reduced water volume export from the region throughout October were conducive to the aggregations in the specific years. Hydrodynamic model results attributed the anomalous decreased volume export to the strength and orientation of the Goodhope Jet and associated eddy activity. The combination of random enhanced primary production typical of the region and emerging anomalous conditions of reduced water export in October since 2011 resulted in favourable food availability leading to the unique humpback whale aggregations. The novelty of this grouping behaviour is indicative of the lack of such oceanographic conditions in the past. Given the recency of the events, it is difficult to attribute this reduction in ocean transport to climatic regime shifts, and the origin should be likely investigated in the distant water mass interaction with the greater Agulhas system rather than in ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dey, Subhra Prakash Vichi, Marcello Fearon, Giles Seyboth, Elisa Findlay, Ken P. Meynecke, Jan-Olaf De Bie, Jasper Lee, Serena Blyth Samanta, Saumik Barraqueta, Jan-Lukas Menzel Roychoudhury, Alakendra N. Mackey, Brendan |
author_facet |
Dey, Subhra Prakash Vichi, Marcello Fearon, Giles Seyboth, Elisa Findlay, Ken P. Meynecke, Jan-Olaf De Bie, Jasper Lee, Serena Blyth Samanta, Saumik Barraqueta, Jan-Lukas Menzel Roychoudhury, Alakendra N. Mackey, Brendan |
author_sort |
Dey, Subhra Prakash |
title |
Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela |
title_short |
Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela |
title_full |
Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela |
title_fullStr |
Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela |
title_full_unstemmed |
Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela |
title_sort |
oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the southern benguela |
publisher |
Nature |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126777 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2 |
geographic |
Austral |
geographic_facet |
Austral |
genre |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae |
op_relation |
Dey, S. P. et al. 2021. Oceanographic anomalies coinciding with humpback whale super-group occurrences in the Southern Benguela. Scientific Reports, 11:20896, doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2. 2045-2322 (online) doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2 http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/126777 |
op_rights |
Authors retain copyright |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00253-2 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1782334958619066368 |