Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Mammal Science 25 (2009): 402-415, doi:10.1111/j.1748-7692.2008.00263.x.
Description:
For closely related sympatric species to coexist, they must differ to some
degree in their ecological requirements or niches (e.g., diets) to avoid inter-specific
competition. Baleen whales in the Antarctic feed primarily on krill, and the large
sympatric pre-whaling community suggests resource partitioning among these species or
a non-limiting prey resource. In order to examine ecological differences between
sympatric humpback and minke whales around the Western Antarctic Peninsula, we
made measurements of the physical environment, observations of whale distribution, and
concurrent acoustic measurements of krill aggregations. Mantel’s tests and Classification
and regression tree models indicate both similarities and differences in the spatial
associations between humpback and minke whales, environmental features, and prey.
The data suggest (1) similarities (proximity to shore) and differences (prey abundance
versus deep water temperatures) in horizontal spatial distribution patterns, (2)
unambiguous vertical resource partitioning with minke whales associating with deeper
krill aggregations across a range of spatial scales, and (3) that interference competition
between these two species is unlikely. These results add to the paucity of ecological
knowledge relating baleen whales and their prey in the Antarctic and should be
considered in conservation and management efforts for Southern Ocean cetaceans and
ecosystems.
Description:
This
research was supported by the International Whaling Commission, the Duke University
Marine Laboratory, NSF US Antarctic Program Grant OPP-9910307 as part of the
Southern Ocean GLOBEC project, and a Fulbright Scholarship and Office of Naval
Research Grant N00014-03-1-0212 (to G. Lawson).
Keywords:
Diving and foraging behavior
;
Krill
;
Spatial analysis
;
Whales
;
Antarctica
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
Format:
application/pdf
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