Evaluating drivers of recent large whale strandings on the East Coast of the United States
Conservation Biology,
Год журнала:
2024,
Номер
38(6)
Опубликована: Май 29, 2024
Anthropogenic
stressors
threaten
large
whales
globally.
Effective
management
requires
an
understanding
of
where,
when,
and
why
threats
are
occurring.
Strandings
data
provide
key
information
on
geographic
hotspots
risk
the
relative
importance
various
threats.
There
is
currently
considerable
public
interest
in
increased
frequency
whale
strandings
occurring
along
US
East
Coast
United
States
since
2016.
Interest
accentuated
due
to
a
purported
link
with
offshore
wind
energy
development.
We
reviewed
spatiotemporal
patterns
strandings,
mortalities,
serious
injuries
humpback
(Megaptera
novaeangliae),
species
most
frequently
involved,
for
which
government
has
declared
"unusual
mortality
event"
(UME).
Our
analysis
highlights
role
vessel
strikes,
exacerbated
by
recent
changes
distribution
traffic.
Humpback
have
expanded
into
new
foraging
grounds
years.
Mortalities
strikes
significantly
these
newly
occupied
regions,
show
high
traffic
that
also
markedly
during
UME.
Surface
feeding
shallow
waters
may
been
contributing
factors.
found
no
evidence
development
contributed
or
mortalities.
This
work
need
consider
behavioral,
ecological,
anthropogenic
factors
determine
drivers
injury
informed
guidance
decision-makers.
Язык: Английский
Surface and subsurface oceanographic features drive forage fish distributions and aggregations: Implications for prey availability to top predators in the US Northeast Shelf ecosystem
Ecology and Evolution,
Год журнала:
2023,
Номер
13(7)
Опубликована: Июль 1, 2023
Forage
fishes
are
a
critical
food
web
link
in
marine
ecosystems,
aggregating
hierarchical
patch
structure
over
multiple
spatial
and
temporal
scales.
Surface-level
forage
fish
aggregations
(FFAs)
represent
concentrated
source
of
prey
available
to
surface-
shallow-foraging
predators.
Existing
survey
analysis
methods
often
imperfect
for
studying
at
scales
appropriate
foraging
predators,
making
it
difficult
quantify
predator-prey
interactions.
In
many
cases,
general
distributions
species
known;
however,
these
may
not
surface-level
availability
Likewise,
we
lack
an
understanding
the
oceanographic
drivers
patterns
aggregation
or
community
patterns.
Specifically,
applied
Bayesian
joint
distribution
models
bottom
trawl
data
assess
species-
community-level
across
US
Northeast
Continental
Shelf
(NES)
ecosystem.
Aerial
digital
surveys
gathered
on
surface
FFAs
two
project
sites
within
NES,
which
used
spatially
explicit
model
estimate
abundance
size
FFAs.
We
examine
aggregations.
Our
results
suggest
that,
regions
high
richness
consistent
with
FFA
abundance.
Bathymetric
depth
drove
both
patterns,
while
subsurface
features,
such
as
mixed
layer
depth,
primarily
influenced
behavior
sea
temperature,
sub-mesoscale
eddies,
fronts
diversity.
combination,
help
predators
novel
application
aerial
data.
Язык: Английский
Assessing small pelagic fish trends in space and time using piscivore stomach contents
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences,
Год журнала:
2023,
Номер
81(8), С. 990 - 1012
Опубликована: Окт. 4, 2023
Changing
distribution
and
abundance
of
small
pelagic
fishes
may
drive
changes
in
predator
distributions,
affecting
availability
to
fisheries
surveys.
However,
pelagics
are
difficult
survey
directly,
so
we
developed
a
novel
method
assessing
the
aggregate
21
forage
taxa
via
stomach
contents.
We
used
contents
collected
from
22
piscivore
species
captured
by
multiple
bottom
trawl
surveys
within
vector
autoregressive
spatio-temporal
model
assess
trends
on
Northeast
US
shelf.
The
goal
was
develop
spatial
“forage
index”
inform
(or)
fishery
western
North
Atlantic
bluefish
(
Pomatomus
saltatrix)
stock
assessment.
This
spatially
resolved
index
compared
favorably
with
more
traditional
design-based
biomass
indices
for
well
sampled
our
content-based
better
represented
smaller
unmanaged
that
not
designed
capture.
stomach-based
helped
explain
recreational
assessment
provided
insight
into
throughout
regional
ecosystem.
Язык: Английский
Atlas of Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus) benthic habitat – application of multibeam acoustics and directed sampling to identify viable subtidal substrates
Marine Environmental Research,
Год журнала:
2024,
Номер
202, С. 106778 - 106778
Опубликована: Окт. 5, 2024
Язык: Английский
Effects of Oceanographic Conditions on Fishery Distribution: A Case Study of Chub Mackerel (Scomber japonicus) in Northeastern Taiwan
Marine Environmental Research,
Год журнала:
2024,
Номер
202, С. 106803 - 106803
Опубликована: Окт. 18, 2024
Язык: Английский
A matter of scale: Identifying the best spatial and temporal scale of environmental variables to model the distribution of a small cetacean
Ecology and Evolution,
Год журнала:
2024,
Номер
14(8)
Опубликована: Авг. 1, 2024
Abstract
The
importance
of
scale
when
investigating
ecological
patterns
and
processes
is
recognised
across
many
species.
In
marine
ecosystems,
the
that
drive
species
distribution
have
a
hierarchical
structure
over
multiple
nested
spatial
temporal
scales.
Hence,
multi‐scale
approaches
should
be
considered
developing
accurate
models
to
identify
key
habitats,
particularly
for
populations
conservation
concern.
Here,
we
propose
modelling
procedure
best
each
modelled
remotely
sensed
oceanographic
variable
model
harbour
porpoise
(
Phocoena
phocoena
)
within
Irish
Exclusive
Economic
Zone.
Harbour
sightings
were
recorded
during
dedicated
line‐transect
aerial
surveys
conducted
in
summers
2016,
2021
2022.
Binary
generalised
additive
used
assess
relationships
between
presence
variables
at
different
(5–40
km)
(daily,
monthly
survey
period)
Selected
included
sea
surface
temperature,
thermal
fronts,
chlorophyll‐a,
height,
mixed
layer
depth
salinity.
A
total
30,514
km
was
covered
on‐effort
with
216
recorded.
Overall,
corresponded
coarsest
resolution
this
study
(40
km),
while
showed
stronger
association
summarised
longer
scale.
Habitat
including
covariates
coarse
scales
may
better
reflect
driving
availability
abundance
resources
these
large
These
findings
support
hypothesis
approach
applied
distribution.
Identifying
suitable
would
improve
functional
interpretation
underlying
relationships,
studying
how
small
predator
interacts
its
environment
responds
climate
ecosystem
changes.
Язык: Английский