Global Climate Drives Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena Australis) Population Dynamics

Overview

Journal Biol Lett

Specialty Biology

Date 2006 Dec 7

PMID 17148385

Citations 28

Authors

Russell Leaper

Justin Cooke

Phil Trathan

Keith Reid

Victoria Rowntree

Roger Payne

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Sea surface temperature (SST) time-series from the southwest Atlantic and the El Niño 4 region in the western Pacific were compared to an index of annual calving success of the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) breeding in Argentina. There was a strong relationship between right whale calving output and SST anomalies at South Georgia in the autumn of the previous year and also with mean El Niño 4 SST anomalies delayed by 6 years. These results extend similar observations from other krill predators and show clear linkages between global climate signals and the biological processes affecting whale population dynamics.

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References

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