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Horizontal niche partitioning of humpback and fin whales around the West Antarctic Peninsula: evidence from a concurrent whale and krill survey

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Abstract

A dedicated aerial cetacean survey was conducted concurrently to a standardised net trawl survey for krill in order to investigate distribution patterns of large whales and different krill species and to investigate relationships of these. Distance sampling data were used to produce density surface models for humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) around the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). Abundance for both species was estimated over two strata in the Bransfield Strait and Drake Passage. Distinct distribution patterns suggest horizontal niche partitioning of the two whale species around the WAP, with fin whales aggregating at the shelf edge of the South Shetland Islands in the Drake Passage and humpback whales in the Bransfield Strait. Krill biomass estimated from the concurrent krill survey was used along with CTD data from the same expedition, bathymetric parameters and satellite data on chlorophyll-a and ice concentration to model krill distribution. Comparisons of the predicted distributions of both whale species with the predicted distributions of Euphausia superba, Euphausia crystallorophias and Thysanoessa macrura suggest a complex relationship rather than a straightforward correlation between krill and whales. However, results indicate that fin whales were feeding in an area dominated by T. macrura, while humpback whales were found in areas of higher E. superba biomass. Our results provide abundance estimates for humpback whales and, for the first time, fin whales in the WAP and contribute important information on feeding ecology and habitat use of these two species in the Southern Ocean.

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Notes

  1. In the original publication given as 0.18 individuals/nm² (95 % CI 0.14–0.24).

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Acknowledgments

We thank Captain Pahl and the R/V Polarstern crew for their support, cooperation and facilitation of our work throughout the expedition ANT29-3. Our survey could not have been conducted without the excellent work and support of the helicopter crew of Heliservice International, Klaus Hammrich, Lars Vaupel, Carsten Möllendorf and Thomas Müller. Very big thanks go to our dedicated observer Carsten Rocholl. We are grateful to the meteorological office on board, Manfred Gebauer and Hartmut Sonnabend. Their weather forecasts made it possible to conduct this survey in very variable weather conditions. We are also grateful to the krill team Ryan Driscoll, Annika Elsheimer, Christina Fromm and Ute Mühlenhardt-Siegel for working long hours and under harsh weather and difficult ice conditions to make the RMT net sampling programme a successful exercise. Finally, we thank the Oceanography team on board of ANT29-3, with special thanks to Andreas Wisotzki for processing the oceanographic data (CTD data: doi: 10.1594/PANGEA.811907 and bottle data: doi: 10.1594/PANGEA.811818). This study was partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture within the project: ‘Modellierungen zu Populationsgrößen und räumlicher Verteilung von Zwergwalen im antarktischen Packeis auf der Grundlage von see- und luftgestützten Tiersichtungen (Project 2811HS015)’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Werftstr. 6, 25761, Büsum, Germany

    Helena Herr & Sacha Viquerat

  2. Thünen-Institute of Sea Fisheries, Palmaille 9, 22767, Hamburg, Germany

    Volker Siegel & Karl-Hermann Kock

  3. Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, 27568, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Boris Dorschel, Wilma G. C. Huneke, Astrid Bracher, Michael Schröder & Julian Gutt

  4. Institute of Environmental Physics, University Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee 1, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Astrid Bracher

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  1. Helena Herr
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Correspondence to Helena Herr.

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This article belongs to the special issue on “High environmental variability and steep biological gradients in the waters off the northern Antarctic Peninsula”, coordinated by Julian Gutt, Bruno David and Enrique Isla.

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Herr, H., Viquerat, S., Siegel, V. et al. Horizontal niche partitioning of humpback and fin whales around the West Antarctic Peninsula: evidence from a concurrent whale and krill survey. Polar Biol 39, 799–818 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1927-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-016-1927-9

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