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Variation in δ13C and δ15N values of mothers and their calves across southern right whale nursery grounds: the effects of nutritional stress?

Carroll, E.L.; Dunshea, G.; Ott, P.H.; Valenzuela, L.O.; Baker, C.S.; Childerhouse, S.J.; Gaggiotti, O.E.; Flores, P.A.C.; Groch, K.; Gröcke, D.R.; Hindell, M.A.; Lundqvist, D.; Oliviera, L.R.; Rowntree, V.; Sironi, M.; Newsome, S.D.

Variation in δ13C and δ15N values of mothers and their calves across southern right whale nursery grounds: the effects of nutritional stress? Thumbnail


Authors

E.L. Carroll

G. Dunshea

P.H. Ott

L.O. Valenzuela

C.S. Baker

S.J. Childerhouse

O.E. Gaggiotti

P.A.C. Flores

K. Groch

M.A. Hindell

D. Lundqvist

L.R. Oliviera

V. Rowntree

M. Sironi

S.D. Newsome



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 (∆13 Ccalf-cow and ∆15 Ncalf-cow) among three SRW populations. SRW from Aotearoa New Zealand, with high population growth rates and body conditions scores, have negative ∆13Ccalf-cow suggesting calves are utilizing 13 C-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 ∆13 Ccalf-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 ∆15 Ncalf-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.

Citation

Carroll, E., Dunshea, G., Ott, P., Valenzuela, L., Baker, C., Childerhouse, S., …Newsome, S. (2022). Variation in δ13C and δ15N values of mothers and their calves across southern right whale nursery grounds: the effects of nutritional stress?. Marine Mammal Science, 38(2), 486-499. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12871

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 4, 2021
Online Publication Date Sep 13, 2021
Publication Date Apr 1, 2022
Deposit Date Aug 16, 2021
Publicly Available Date Sep 13, 2022
Journal Marine Mammal Science
Print ISSN 0824-0469
Electronic ISSN 1748-7692
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 38
Issue 2
Pages 486-499
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12871

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Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Carroll, E. L., Dunshea, G., Ott, P. H., Valenzuela, L. O., Baker, C. S., Childerhouse, S. J., Gaggiotti, O. E., Flores, P. A. C., Groch, K., Gröcke, D. R., Hindell, M. A., Lundquist, D., Oliveira, L. R., Rowntree, V., Sironi, M., & Newsome, S. D. (2022). Variation in δ13C and δ15N values of mothers and their calves across southern right whale nursery grounds: The effects of nutritional stress? Marine Mammal Science, 38( 2), 486– 499. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12871], which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12871. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.





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