Habitat-based cetacean density models for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
نویسندگان
چکیده
Cetaceans are protected worldwide but vulnerable to incidental harm from an expanding array of human activities at sea. Managing potential hazards to these highly-mobile populations increasingly requires a detailed understanding of their seasonal distributions and habitats. Pursuant to the urgent need for this knowledge for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, we integrated 23 years of aerial and shipboard cetacean surveys, linked them to environmental covariates obtained from remote sensing and ocean models, and built habitat-based density models for 26 species and 3 multi-species guilds using distance sampling methodology. In the Atlantic, for 11 well-known species, model predictions resembled seasonal movement patterns previously suggested in the literature. For these we produced monthly mean density maps. For lesser-known taxa, and in the Gulf of Mexico, where seasonal movements were less well described, we produced year-round mean density maps. The results revealed high regional differences in small delphinoid densities, confirmed the importance of the continental slope to large delphinoids and of canyons and seamounts to beaked and sperm whales, and quantified seasonal shifts in the densities of migratory baleen whales. The density maps, freely available online, are the first for these regions to be published in the peer-reviewed literature.
منابع مشابه
STRIPED DOLPHIN (Stenella coeruleoalba): Western North Atlantic Stock
STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE The striped dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba, is distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical seas of the world. Striped dolphins are found in the western North Atlantic from Nova Scotia south to at least Jamaica and in the Gulf of Mexico. In general, striped dolphins appear to prefer continental slope waters offshore to the Gulf Stream (Leatherwood et al....
متن کاملHorizontal movements of Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) in the Gulf of Mexico
We examined movements of Atlantic blue marlin (Makaira nigricans) from the Gulf of Mexico based upon 42 pop-up archival transmitting (PAT) tags. Long deployments (including one 334-day track) revealed diverse movement patterns within the Gulf of Mexico. North–south seasonal changes in blue marlin distribution showed strong correspondence with established seasonal patterns of sea surface tempera...
متن کاملHabitat-based models of cetacean density and distribution in the central North Pacific
The central North Pacific Ocean includes diverse temperate and tropical pelagic habitats. Studies of the abundance and distribution of cetaceans within these dynamic marine ecosystems have generally been patchy or conducted at coarse spatial and temporal scales, limiting their utility for pelagic conservation planning. Habitat-based density models provide a tool for identifying pelagic areas of...
متن کاملExtrapolating cetacean densities to quantitatively assess human impacts on populations in the high seas
As human activities expand beyond national jurisdictions to the high seas, there is an increasing need to consider anthropogenic impacts to species inhabiting these waters. The current scarcity of scientific observations of cetaceans in the high seas impedes the assessment of population-level impacts of these activities. We developed plausible density estimates to facilitate a quantitative asse...
متن کامل