Understanding the Patterns and Causes of Variability in Distribution, Habitat Use, Abundance, Survival and Reproductive Rates of Three Species of Cetacean in the Alboran Sea, Western Mediterranean
Abstract
The question of how environmental variability affects populations of marine top predators is an important one because of their role within ecosystems and their potential to influence community structure and biodiversity. An understanding of the patterns of distribution and abundance and particularly the causes of that variation is critical to making informed assessments of the importance of anthropogenic activities to marine mammal populations. This project will quantify changes in distribution, habitat use, abundance, survival and reproductive rates of three species of cetacean in the Alboran Sea (western Mediterranean) in relation to variation in the physical and biological environment and human activities, based on 18 years of data. The proposed study species, bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) and longfinned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) occupy different oceanographic niches off southern Spain. The Alboran Sea is a highly productive and distinct ecosystem that plays an important role in the oceanography of the Mediterranean basin, and has experienced marked changes in climatic and oceanographic conditions. We will attempt to relate features of a species biology to environmental change, particularly climate change, focusing on distribution, abundance and estimated reproductive and survival rates. The two last ones provide information on the mechanisms that cause distribution and abundance to change. Knowledge of these relationships will help us to predict the future impacts of environmental change in a way that studies of distribution and abundance alone cannot. This project will do this using a two decade dataset on bottlenose and common dolphin and pilot whale in the Alboran Sea and the time series of environmental changes generated by IMEDEA (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies) and by NOAA OceanWatch.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA571267
Entities
People
- Ana Canadas