Trends and gaps in marine mammal research from Mexico during 1998 – 2021

Abstract

Marine mammals are very diverse because of the oceanographic conditions of Mexican waters (where 36% of the current species worldwide are found); however, scientific research on many of these taxa is still at the basic stages. The goal of this study was to assess the scientific information available for these species and to determine research priorities through a GAP (from the acronym "Good", "Average", and "Poor”) analysis. Information from the abstracts of the meetings held by the Mexican Society of Marine Mammalogy (SOMEMMA) and online databases (SCOPUS and Web of Science) between 1998 and 2021 was analyzed using temporal (years), geographic (oceans or states), taxonomic (species), and thematic (topics) classifications. On average, of the 44 species included in the Mexican legislation, only 16 - included in 14 families (with most of the records) - are studied every year, Delphinidae (n = 500; 25.9%), Balaenopteridae (n = 335; 17.4%), and Otariidae (n = 316; 16.4%). The Gulf of California was the most studied region (35.4%), followed by the Northeast Pacific (19.3%), the Gulf of Mexico (15.5%), and the Caribbean Sea (6.9%). The most frequent topics were population ecology (32.9%), conservation (16.7%), and animal health (10.4%). A significant decrease in the taxonomic and thematic diversity of such studies has been noted since SOMEMMA meetings began to be held on a biennial basis. It is noteworthy that marine mammals are protected by Mexican Federal laws. However, stock assessments are not mandatory, therefore biological aspects and trends of several (mostly oceanic) species remain unknown in many places, especially in regions where academic and scientific institutions are not involved in marine science.

Two decades of the Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals (LAJAM): A bibliometric review for the period 2002 – 2022

“…Our analyses indicate that a relevant part of the publications in LAJAM focus mostly on cetaceans and that the initial studies in LAJAM were carried out mainly in coastal waters of southern Brazil. The most frequently studied taxa in LAJAM were odontocetes (e.g., Tursiops truncatus, Pontoporia blainvillei, Sotalia guianensis, and S. fluviatilis), followed by balaenopterids (e.g., Megaptera novaeangliae) which were also the most studied in a broader bibliometric review for South America (Szteren & Lecari, 2022) and Mexico (Escobar-Lazcano et al, 2023) over the last 30 and 20 years, respectively. However, there were differences in the geographic coverage of the studied areas, according to the natural distribution of the species (Palacios et al, 2011;Szteren & Lecari, 2022;Escobar-Lazcano et al, 2023).…”

“…The most frequently studied taxa in LAJAM were odontocetes (e.g., Tursiops truncatus, Pontoporia blainvillei, Sotalia guianensis, and S. fluviatilis), followed by balaenopterids (e.g., Megaptera novaeangliae) which were also the most studied in a broader bibliometric review for South America (Szteren & Lecari, 2022) and Mexico (Escobar-Lazcano et al, 2023) over the last 30 and 20 years, respectively. However, there were differences in the geographic coverage of the studied areas, according to the natural distribution of the species (Palacios et al, 2011;Szteren & Lecari, 2022;Escobar-Lazcano et al, 2023). For instance, owing to the diversity of species, studies in South America generally focused on species with a wide distribution (de Oliveira et al, 2012;Szteren & Lacari, 2022); conversely, since the beginning of LAJAM, the study of species with restricted distribution has been emphasized (e.g., Rodriguez et al, 2002;Flores & Bazzalo, 2004;Utreras et al, 2005).…”

“…It is also noteworthy that the key topics in various journals generally cover specific aspects of the studied species (i.e., population ecology, conservation, behavior, feeding, phylogenetics, animal health, human-animal interaction, tourism, environmental education, among others) (Simões-Lopes, 2018; Szteren & Lacari, 2022;Escobar-Lazcano et al, 2023); however, although LAJAM also considers diverse aspects of the studied species, so far most publications seem to address mainly broad aspects of habitat distribution and use (e.g., Rossi-Santos et al, 2006;Di Giacomo & Ott, 2017;Lodi et al, 2017). Thus, expanding the taxonomic and thematic diversity of publications in LAJAM over the upcoming years could help reach new horizons for this journal.…”