Harbour porpoises respond to climate change

Ecology and Evolution

Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen¹  Maria Iversen¹  Nynne Hjort Nielsen¹  Christina Lockyer³  Harry Stern² 

[1] Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Box 570, DK-3900 Nuuk, Greenland;Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, 1013 NE 40^th Street, Seattle WA 98105;Age Dynamics, c/o Innelvveien 201, Kaldfjord, N-9100 Kvaløysletta, Norway

关键词: Climate change;    harbour porpoise;    west greenland;    body condition;    Atlantic cod;   

DOI  :  10.1002/ece3.51

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

The effects of climate change on marine ecosystems and in particular on marine top predators are difficult to assess due to, among other things, spatial variability, and lack of clear delineation of marine habitats. The banks of West Greenland are located in a climate sensitive area and are likely to elicit pronounced responses to oceanographic changes in the North Atlantic. The recent increase in sea temperatures on the banks of West Greenland has had cascading effects on sea ice coverage, residency of top predators, and abundance of important prey species like Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Here, we report on the response of one of the top predators in West Greenland; the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). The porpoises depend on locating high densities of prey species with high nutritive value and they have apparently responded to the general warming on the banks of West Greenland by longer residence times, increased consumption of Atlantic cod resulting in improved body condition in the form of larger fat deposits in blubber, compared to the situation during a cold period in the 1990s. This is one of the few examples of a measurable effect of climate change on a marine mammal population.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC   
© 2011 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.