We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Variation in δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N values of mothers and their calves across southern right whale nursery grounds: The effects of nutritional stress?
- Authors
Carroll, Emma L.; Dunshea, Glenn; Ott, Paulo H.; Valenzuela, Luciano O.; Baker, C. Scott; Childerhouse, Simon J.; Gaggiotti, Oscar E.; Flores, Paulo A. C.; Groch, Karina; Gröcke, Darren R.; Hindell, Mark A.; Lundquist, David; Oliveira, Larissa R.; Rowntree, Victoria; Sironi, Mariano; Newsome, Seth D.
- Abstract
Southern right whales (SRW) are capital breeders that use stored energy reserves to sustain themselves and their calves on nursery areas. With successful calving events declining in some SRW populations, it has been hypothesized that nutritional stress in adult females causes reproductive failure or death of calves shortly after birth. Here we compared offsets in carbon and nitrogen isotope values of mothers and their offspring (Δ13Ccalf‐cow and Δ15Ncalf‐cow) among three SRW populations. SRW from Aotearoa New Zealand, with high population growth rates and body conditions scores, have negative Δ13Ccalf‐cow suggesting calves are utilizing 13C‐depleted lipid carbon in milk to fuel the synthesis of nonessential amino acids used to build new tissues and rapidly grow. In contrast, a significantly positive Δ13Ccalf‐cow offset previously reported for SRW from Argentina during a mass die‐off event was hypothesized to be due to calves consuming milk with low lipid content. Patterns in Δ15Ncalf‐cow were more difficult to interpret and highlight the complexity in nitrogen transfer between mother and offspring. When combined with similar data collected from Brazil and during a low mortality year in Argentina, we hypothesize this approach provides a way to retrospectively compare nutritional condition of breeding adult female SRW across nursery areas.
- Subjects
ARGENTINA; BRAZIL; CALVES; AMINO acid synthesis; WHALES; NITROGEN isotopes; MOTHERS; CARBON isotopes
- Publication
Marine Mammal Science, 2022, Vol 38, Issue 2, p486
- ISSN
0824-0469
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/mms.12871