Evaluating Population Consequences of Disturbance of humpback whales in the context of climate change.
Abstract
In the face of climate change and growing impacts of anthropogenic activities, it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop approaches that combine empirical research, conceptual frameworks, and modeling techniques to forecast consequences on wildlife populations. Here, we propose to execute a modeling exercise that seeks to forecast population consequences of disturbance in the context of climate change on a large baleen whale (humpback whale [HBW]; Megaptera novaeangliae). This will be achieved by capitalizing on the world#s largest unoccupied aerial systems (UAS; drone)-photogrammetry dataset on HBW health (body condition), coupled with available (and future) fine-scale multi-sensor movement tag data from >95 deployments on HBWs on both their foraging and breeding grounds. The Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at the University of Hawaii is on the forefront of integrating innovative technology (e.g., non-invasive suction-cup tagging and UAS) to better understand the behavioral ecology of marine mammals and to inform on impacts of human activity thereon.Between 2013 and 2019, marked declines in humpback whale (HBW) abundance and reproductive success were documented throughout the North Pacific. These declines coincided with a trifecta of climatic events, including the longest lasting marine heatwave globally exacerbated by strong El Niño and positive Pacific Decadal Oscillation phases. Subsequent research priorities highlighted the need for an improved understanding of HBW population health (i.e. body condition) via UAS-photogrammetry. Here, we propose to use our large UAS-photogrammetry dataset on HBW body condition collected throughout their entire migratory cycle in the North Pacific representing ~45% of all individuals from the Hawaii Distinct Population Segment to gain an understanding of how the health (body condition) of a large baleen whale varies naturally and in response to stressors. Specifically, we have collected >8,800 body condition measurements of >6950 individual HBWs across the Hawaiian breeding and SE Alaskan feeding grounds.Similarly, the MMRP has deployed 97 suction-cup inertial-sensing CATS (Customized Animal Tracking Solutions; www.cats.is) data logging video tags on HBWsin Hawaii and Alaska. Our non-invasive archival tags integrate several synchronized data streams (including high-resolution tri-axial accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, and high-resolution video and acoustic data) which provides an opportunity to measure fine-scale baseline data (Bejder et al., 2019) as well as short-term behavioral and physiological response metrics associated with a stressor (Mikkelsen et al. 2019, Elmegard et al., 2021, Czapanskiy et al., 2021). With further targeted deployments, our tag data will allow us to quantify detailed movement patterns and respiration rates (stratified by age, sex, reproductive state, and body condition) which, in turn, can be converted to oxygen consumption rates and field metabolic rate(FMR) using published bioenergetic models (following Christiansen et al., 2023).
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Nov 09, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412454
Entities
People
- Lars Bejder
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Hawaiʻi System