Scale-dependent habitat use by a large free-ranging predator, the Mediterranean fin whale

Cotté, Cédric; Guinet, Christophe; Taupier‐Letage, Isabelle; Mate, Bruce R.; Petiau, Estelle

doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2008.12.008

Cited by 54 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Therefore this population is exposed, year-round, to heavy shipping traffic, as the 3 largest Mediterranean ports -Bar ce lona, Marseille, and Genovaare contiguous to the main fin whale summer foraging grounds (Forcada et al 1996, Monestiez et al 2006, Cotté et al 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…B. physalus feed on the krill Meganyctiphanes norvegica (euphausiacea) as revealed both by feces (Orsi Relini & Giordano 1992) and fatty acid (Ruchonnet et al 2006) analyses. They gather during summer in the northern part of the western basin (Forcada et al 1996, Monestiez et al 2006, Cotté et al 2009), where they are exposed to shipping collisions, a major threat for the species (Panigada et al 2006) particularly in the Mediterra -nean, which accounts for 30% (in Notarbartolo di Sciara et al 2003) of the world's merchant shipping covering only 0.8% of the global ocean surface. Information about their population distribution outside the summer period is lacking, yet it is needed to develop mitigation measures for the conservation of the species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Bentaleb¹,

Martin²,

Vrac³

et al. 2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

101

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We investigated seasonal shifts in diet and distribution of fin whales Bala en optera physalus occurring in the western Mediterranean Sea. For this purpose, we combined carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ This pattern was confirmed by satellite tracking; 1 out of 8 fin whales we successfully tracked left the Mediterranean for the Atlantic. Longer-term changes in isotopic signatures of baleen plates exhibited significant depletion trends, indicating that changes due to increasing input of nutrients and anthropogenic carbon are occurring in the western Mediterranean Sea ecosystem.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Bentaleb¹,

Martin²,

Vrac³

et al. 2011

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

101

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“…The originality of the model lies in the fact that the habitat is largely defined by the vicinity of fin whales to specific oceanic features, i.e. chl a and SST fronts, which seem to be closely linked with foraging (Johnston et al 2005, Laran & Gannier 2008, Cotté et al 2009. A specific chl a range at the position of these identified oceanic features is also used to detect the preferred habitat (Fig.…”

Section: Model Structure and Choice Of Predictorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The following sections describe in detail the choice of variables of that species niche model and how the presence data were used to optimize the parameterization. Several studies have shown that feeding fin whales and other rorqual whales are often located in areas of thermal (Nottestad et al 2002, Doniol-Valcroze et al 2007) and chl a fronts (Cotté et al 2009), where many zooplankton species are abundant (Le Fèvre 1986). The concentration of small and large zooplankton in convergence areas, such as chl a fronts, is known to attract higher trophic level predators, leading to the assemblage of a complete pelagic food web (Olson et al 1994).…”

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confidence: 99%

Potential feeding habitat of fin whales in the western Mediterranean Sea: an environmental niche model

Druon¹,

Panigada²,

David³

et al. 2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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The development of synoptic tools is required to derive the potential habitat of fin whales Balaenoptera physalus on a large-scale basis in the Mediterranean Sea, as the species has a largely unknown distribution and is at high risk of ship strike. We propose a foraging habitat model for fin whales in the western Mediterranean Sea relying on species ecology for the choice of predictors. The selected environmental variables are direct predictors and resource predictors available at daily and basin scales. Feeding habitat was determined mainly from the simultaneous occurrence of large oceanic fronts of satellite-derived sea-surface chlorophyll content (chl a) and temperature (SST). A specific range of surface chl a content (0.11 to 0.39 mg m −3) and a minimum water depth (92 m) were also identified to be important regional criteria. Daily maps were calibrated and evaluated against independent sets of fin whale sightings (presence data only). Specific chl a fronts represented the main predictor of feeding environment; therefore, derived habitat is a potential, rather than effective, habitat, but is functionally linked to a proxy of its resource (chl a production of fronts). The model performs well, with 80% of the presence data < 9.7 km from the predicted potential habitat. The computed monthly, seasonal and annual maps of potential feeding habitat from 2000 to 2010 correlate, for the most part, with current knowledge on fin whale ecology. Overall, fin whale potential habitat occurs frequently during summer in dynamic areas of the general circulation, and is substantially more spread over the basin in winter. However, the results also displayed high year-to-year variations (40 to 50%), which are essential to consider when assessing migration patterns and recommending protection and conservation measures.KEY WORDS: Balaenoptera physalus · Potential habitat · Feeding · Mediterranean Sea · Satellite data · Fronts · Chlorophyll a · Environmental niche model Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 464: [289][290][291][292][293][294][295][296][297][298][299][300][301][302][303][304][305][306] 2012 eral anthropogenic threats affect the Mediterranean fin whale population, with vessel strikes being one of the main causes of human-induced mortality (Panigada et al. 2006). The risk of a vessel strike is particularly severe in areas of heavy maritime traffic, such as the PELAGOS Sanctuary (ACCOBAMS 2006, David et al. 2011, where fin whales tend to concentrate in high numbers during the summer months (Gannier 1997, 2002, Notarbartolo di Sciara et al. 2003, Panigada et al. 2005, Würtz 2010. The PELAGOS Sanctuary is the first International Marine Protected Area (MPA) created in the high seas (Hoyt 2005) that aims at integrating human activities with cetacean conservation (Notarbartolo di Sciara 2007). While shipping noise is one source of disturbance, seismic airguns used for oil and gas exploration can also deter fin whales from feeding or breeding grounds (Cas...

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“…Hidden Markov model [58,59], first passage time [60], state space model [61,62]) and used to relate the defined horizontal ARS to particular structures of the environment (e.g. oceanographic features [31,53,63], sea ice [64,65], topography [66,67]). Bailleul et al [36] underlined the importance of integrating a vertical index of foraging effort to better identify foraging areas when studying deep-diving marine predators.…”

Section: Ecological Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From high-resolution to low-resolution dive datasets: a new index to quantify the foraging effort of marine predators

et al. 2015

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Background: In the last decade, thousands of satellite-relayed data loggers (SRDLs) have been deployed, providing large datasets on marine predator movement patterns at sea and their diving behaviour. However, the latter is in a highly summarised, low-resolution form, from which it is difficult to make the sorts of important behavioural inferences that are possible from higher-resolution datasets (such as detection of likely foraging events). The main objective of this study was to develop a simple, but accurate tool to detect and quantify within-dive foraging periods in low-resolution dives.Method: Two southern elephant seals were fitted with a head-mounted time depth recorder (TDR) (recording depth at 1 Hz) and an accelerometer (recording 3 axes of acceleration at 16 Hz) from which prey capture attempts were estimated (PrCA), and a Weddell seal was also fitted with a TDR (1 Hz).The resulting high-resolution dive profiles were used to: (1) calculate an accurate index of foraging effort based on the detection of vertical sinuosity switches (i.e. hunting highres time); (2) produce an SRDL-equivalent low-resolution dataset using a broken stick algorithm; and (3) from each low-resolution dive calculate a set of candidate foraging effort indices.Results: Hunting lowres time, which is the total time spent in decreased vertical velocity segments of the dive, was the foraging effort index that best correlated with hunting highres time. Hunting highres mode of SES dives (highly sinuous parts of high-resolution dives) was associated with 77 % of total PrCA. In comparison, Hunting lowres segments of SES dives were associated with 68 % of PrCA as well as with four times more PrCA than transit lowres segments. Conclusion:We found a low-resolution index which indicates foraging activity within a highly summarised dive profile and which identified most PrCA, despite degraded information transmitted by SLDRs. Used in combination with other measurements of the in situ environment, the hunting lowres index could be used in numerous integrated marine ecology studies, such as habitat use studies that are crucial to facilitate more effective conservation.

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Scale-dependent habitat use by a large free-ranging predator, the Mediterranean fin whale

Cited by 54 publications

References 45 publications

Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Potential feeding habitat of fin whales in the western Mediterranean Sea: an environmental niche model

From high-resolution to low-resolution dive datasets: a new index to quantify the foraging effort of marine predators

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Scale-dependent habitat use by a large free-ranging predator, the Mediterranean fin whale

Cited by 54 publications

References 45 publications

Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite ­tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite ­tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Potential feeding habitat of fin whales in the western Mediterranean Sea: an environmental niche model

From high-resolution to low-resolution dive datasets: a new index to quantify the foraging effort of marine predators

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Product

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Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes

Foraging ecology of Mediterranean fin whales in a changing environment elucidated by satellite tracking and baleen plate stable isotopes