Stable isotope records of sei whale baleens from Chilean Patagonia as archives for feeding and migration behavior

Reiss, Lilian; Häussermann, Verena; Mayr, Christoph

doi:10.1002/ece3.5939

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(207 reference statements)

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“…Stable isotope analysis has been widely used to study animal diets in the wild (Hobson 1999;Rubenstein and Hobson 2004;West et al 2006), including baleen whales (e.g. Newsome et al 2010a;Borrell et al 2012;Eisenmann et al 2016;Valenzuela et al 2018;Reiss et al 2020)), with a particular focus on carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. As energy flows through an ecosystem and is passed up the food chain, carbon isotopic values (δ 13 C) can be used to determine the source of primary production within a food web (Fry 1989).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Baleen whales have multiple layers of tightly packed keratinous plates (baleen) surrounding the inner mouth edge that grow continuously from the gumline and are metabolically inert once synthesised (Rita et al 2019) making baleen a good candidate tissue for studying temporal changes of baleen whale resource use. Indeed, isotopic analysis of incremental samples along the growth axis of baleen plates has been used to determine changes in whale foraging preferences through time (Best and Schell 1996;Trueman et al 2019;Reiss et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evidence of resource partitioning between fin and sei whales during the twentieth-century whaling period

et al. 2022

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Investigating resource partitioning of marine predators is essential for understanding coexistence of sympatric species and the functional role they play in marine ecosystems. Baleen whales are a key component of sub-Antarctic ecosystems, foraging predominantly on zooplankton and small forage fish. During the twentieth century, baleen whales were unsustainably exploited across the Southern Ocean. Within the exclusive economic zone of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI EEZ) in the South Atlantic, approximately 98,000 fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and 16,000 sei whales (B.borealis) were harvested. Despite both species historically occurring in high numbers and feeding in sub-polar waters, little is known about the mechanisms of coexistence. Here, by measuring stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in archived baleen plates and analysing historic catch data, we investigate resource partitioning of fin and sei whale during the commercial whaling period. Temporal and spatial occupancy at SGSSI EEZ (inferred from whaling catches that occurred between 1904 and 1976), alongside historic stomach contents (from the literature), and δ13C and δ15N results (observed in this study), suggests that despite using a common prey resource there was limited overlap in isotopic niches between the two species, with sei whales using SGSSI waters later in the season and for a shorter period than fin whales. We hypothesise that the isotopic differences were most likely due to sei whales foraging at lower latitudes prior to arrival at SGSSI. Our data provide novel insight into how two sympatric whale species co-occurring at SGSSI during the commercial whaling period may have partitioned resources and provide a potential ecological baseline to assess changes in resource use in recovering whale populations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of resource partitioning between fin and sei whales during the twentieth-century whaling period

et al. 2022

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“…This event provided the largest source of information for this species in the Southern Hemisphere (Häussermann et al, 2017). In addition to highlighting the Chilean southern Patagonia as an important area for sei whales (Häussermann et al, 2017;Español-Jiménez et al, 2019;Fretwell et al, 2019;Reiss, Häussermann & Mayr, 2020), this event represents a unique opportunity to address questions regarding the phylogeographic structure of the species, with an improved coverage of the species' distribution and insight into the population demography dynamics considering a temporal framework. Here, a global phylogeographic study of the sei whale is presented, including a large number of Southern Hemisphere (SH) sei whale samples (particularly from this MME), as well as new sequences from the North Pacific (NP), substantially increasing geographic coverage of the species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogeography and demographic inference of the endangered sei whale, with implications for conservation

Pérez‐Álvarez

Rodríguez

Kraft

et al. 2021

Aquatic Conservation

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1. The sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) presents a disjointed geographic distribution.Significant genetic divergence between sei whales from the North Atlantic (NA) and North Pacific (NP) have been recorded; however, limited samples from the Southern Hemisphere (SH) have precluded a global analysis.2. The largest recorded mass mortality event occurred in Golfo de Penas, southern Chile, providing a primary source of SH samples. A global mitochondrial DNA phylogeographic study was undertaken including 111 SH samples (98 from Golfo de Penas), and new sequences from the NP.3. A marked phylogeographic structure was observed between the three ocean basins' populations, with the highest Φ ST values between NA-NP and NA-SH, and a lower but still significant value between SH-NP. This structure, and the haplotype distribution pattern, suggest a more recent separation between SH-NP and an absence of recurrent gene flow among all three populations. Only one potential migratory event was detected from SH to NA. 4. These results support an ongoing phylogeographic differentiation between all populations, highlighting the identity of each and the importance of independent management. Therefore, each population should represent a separate management unit, which is important in the development of conservation strategies. Demographic analyses detected a recent reduction of population size in the SHand NA, but not in the NP. For all populations, estimated effective population sizes were higher than estimated census sizes. This suggests that most of the genetic diversity of pre-whaling populations is still retained; however, continued reduction in population sizes could lead to future loss of genetic diversity.6. This study highlights the necessity of local protection and systematic monitoring of the Golfo de Penas sei whale population. In such a remote area the use of remote sensing techniques could be a cost-effective option for evaluating the threat, periodicity and magnitude of mortalities and their effect on the local whale population. The integration of genetic and demographic approaches improves the understanding of the dynamics of populations, which is particularly useful in endangered species.

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“…The prey items of blue, fin, sei, and humpback whales off the coast of Chile have been inferred from visual observations of prey (e.g., Gibbons et al, 2003; Toro et al, 2016) or net samples of prey (e.g., Buchan & Quiñones, 2016; Pérez et al 2006) near foraging animals, or isotopic analyses of whale biopsy and baleen samples (e.g., Haro et al, 2016; Reiss et al 2020). However, so far, no studies to our knowledge have directly examined fecal samples to determine prey items.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Prey items of baleen whale species off the coast of Chile from fecal plume analysis

Buchan

Vásquez²,

Olavarría³

et al. 2021

Marine Mammal Science

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The coast of Chile hosts several baleen whale species, among others blue, fin, sei, and humpback whales. Globally, blue (Balaenoptera musculus) and sei whales (B. borealis) are classified as Endangered; fin whales (B. physalus) are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (https://www.iucnredlist.org) as Vulnerable and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) of Least Concern. Off the coast of Chile, the population trends for all these species are unknown and it is therefore unclear how well these species are recovering following commercial whaling. Basic biological information, like diet, on all four species is still needed to understand food web dynamics, fisheries interactions (

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Stable isotope records of sei whale baleens from Chilean Patagonia as archives for feeding and migration behavior

Cited by 11 publications

References 59 publications

Evidence of resource partitioning between fin and sei whales during the twentieth-century whaling period

Evidence of resource partitioning between fin and sei whales during the twentieth-century whaling period

Phylogeography and demographic inference of the endangered sei whale, with implications for conservation

Prey items of baleen whale species off the coast of Chile from fecal plume analysis

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