RESUMO
Climate change and climate variability are affecting marine mammal species and these impacts are projected to continue in the coming decades. Vulnerability assessments provide a framework for evaluating climate impacts over a broad range of species using currently available information. We conducted a trait-based climate vulnerability assessment using expert elicitation for 108 marine mammal stocks and stock groups in the western North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Our approach combined the exposure (projected change in environmental conditions) and sensitivity (ability to tolerate and adapt to changing conditions) of marine mammal stocks to estimate vulnerability to climate change, and categorize stocks with a vulnerability index. The climate vulnerability score was very high for 44% (n = 47) of these stocks, high for 29% (n = 31), moderate for 20% (n = 22), and low for 7% (n = 8). The majority of stocks (n = 78; 72%) scored very high exposure, whereas 24% (n = 26) scored high, and 4% (n = 4) scored moderate. The sensitivity score was very high for 33% (n = 36) of these stocks, high for 18% (n = 19), moderate for 34% (n = 37), and low for 15% (n = 16). Vulnerability results were summarized for stocks in five taxonomic groups: pinnipeds (n = 4; 25% high, 75% moderate), mysticetes (n = 7; 29% very high, 57% high, 14% moderate), ziphiids (n = 8; 13% very high, 50% high, 38% moderate), delphinids (n = 84; 52% very high, 23% high, 15% moderate, 10% low), and other odontocetes (n = 5; 60% high, 40% moderate). Factors including temperature, ocean pH, and dissolved oxygen were the primary drivers of high climate exposure, with effects mediated through prey and habitat parameters. We quantified sources of uncertainty by bootstrapping vulnerability scores, conducting leave-one-out analyses of individual attributes and individual scorers, and through scoring data quality for each attribute. These results provide information for researchers, managers, and the public on marine mammal responses to climate change to enhance the development of more effective marine mammal management, restoration, and conservation activities that address current and future environmental variation and biological responses due to climate change.
Assuntos
Caniformia , Mudança Climática , Animais , Golfo do México , Região do Caribe , Mamíferos , CetáceosRESUMO
Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), including those impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, inhabit the coastal and estuarine waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (GoM). In response to the spill, dolphin health assessments conducted in Barataria Bay, Louisiana - a site that experienced heavy and prolonged oiling - uncovered a high prevalence of health abnormalities and individuals in poor body condition. Although the health effects observed were suggestive of petroleum toxicity, a lack of pre-spill information regarding dolphin health raises the possibility that other environmental factors may have contributed to the adverse health of dolphins in this oil-impacted area. To assess how exposure to other environmental pollutants may affect the health of northern GoM dolphin populations impacted by the DWH oil spill, a suite of 69 persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including PCBs, PBDEs and organochlorine pesticides, was determined in blood and a subset of blubber samples collected during health assessments of 145 bottlenose dolphins at three GoM sites: two oil impacted sites - Barataria Bay, LA (BB), and Mississippi Sound, MS (MS) and an unimpacted reference site - Sarasota Bay, FL (SB). Overall, levels of POPs at all three sites appeared comparable or lower than concentrations previously reported for coastal bottlenose dolphin populations outside of the northern GoM. POP levels measured in BB dolphins were also comparable or lower than those measured at the unimpacted reference site (SB) within the northern GoM. Additionally, the relationship between blubber and blood contaminant levels in a smaller subset of BB and SB suggests that BB animals were not experiencing elevated blood-contaminant concentrations as a result of their poor body condition. Cumulatively, these results suggest that background levels of POPs measured are unlikely to produce the health abnormalities previously reported for BB dolphins.
Assuntos
Tecido Adiposo/química , Golfinho Nariz-de-Garrafa , Poluição por Petróleo , Poluentes Químicos da Água/sangue , Animais , Desastres , Monitoramento Ambiental , Golfo do México , Louisiana , Mississippi , Poluentes Químicos da Água/análiseRESUMO
Common bottlenose dolphins serve as sentinels for the health of their coastal environments as they are susceptible to health impacts from anthropogenic inputs through both direct exposure and food web magnification. Remote biopsy samples have been widely used to reveal contaminant burdens in free-ranging bottlenose dolphins, but do not address the health consequences of this exposure. To gain insight into whether remote biopsies can also identify health impacts associated with contaminant burdens, we employed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to interrogate the transcriptomes of remote skin biopsies from 116 bottlenose dolphins from the northern Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. Atlantic coasts. Gene expression was analyzed using principal component analysis, differential expression testing, and gene co-expression networks, and the results correlated to season, location, and contaminant burden. Season had a significant impact, with over 60% of genes differentially expressed between spring/summer and winter months. Geographic location exhibited lesser effects on the transcriptome, with 23.5% of genes differentially expressed between the northern Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern U.S. Atlantic locations. Despite a large overlap between the seasonal and geographical gene sets, the pathways altered in the observed gene expression profiles were somewhat distinct. Co-regulated gene modules and differential expression analysis both identified epidermal development and cellular architecture pathways to be expressed at lower levels in animals from the northern Gulf of Mexico. Although contaminant burdens measured were not significantly different between regions, some correlation with contaminant loads in individuals was observed among co-expressed gene modules, but these did not include classical detoxification pathways. Instead, this study identified other, possibly downstream pathways, including those involved in cellular architecture, immune response, and oxidative stress, that may prove to be contaminant responsive markers in bottlenose dolphin skin.
Assuntos
Golfinho Nariz-de-Garrafa/genética , Exposição Ambiental , Monitoramento Ambiental , Pele/metabolismo , Transcriptoma , Poluentes Químicos da Água/efeitos adversos , Animais , Feminino , Golfo do México , Masculino , Análise de Sequência de RNA , South CarolinaRESUMO
Few accounts describe predator-prey interactions between common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus Montagu 1821) and marine catfish (Ariopsis felis Linnaeus 1766, Bagre marinus Mitchill 1815). Over the course of 50,167 sightings of bottlenose dolphin groups in Mississippi Sound and along the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico, severed catfish heads were found floating and exhibiting movements at the surface in close proximity to 13 dolphin groups that demonstrated feeding behavior. These observations prompted a multi-disciplinary approach to study the predator-prey relationship between bottlenose dolphins and marine catfish. A review was conducted of bottlenose dolphin visual survey data and dorsal fin photographs from sightings where severed catfish heads were observed. Recovered severed catfish heads were preserved and studied, whole marine catfish were collected and examined, and stranding network pathology reports were reviewed for references to injuries related to fish spines. Photographic identification analysis confirms eight dolphins associated with severed catfish heads were present in three such sightings across an approximately 350 km expanse of coast between the Mississippi Sound and Saint Joseph Bay, FL. An examination of the severed catfish heads indicated interaction with dolphins, and fresh-caught whole hardhead catfish (A. felis) were examined to estimate the presumed total length of the catfish before decapitation. Thirty-eight instances of significant trauma or death in dolphins attributed to ingesting whole marine catfish were documented in stranding records collected from the southeastern United States of America. Bottlenose dolphins typically adhere to a ram-feeding strategy for prey capture followed by whole prey ingestion; however, marine catfish skull morphology may pose a consumption hazard due to rigid spines that can puncture and migrate through soft tissue, prompting a prey handling technique for certain dolphins, facilitating consumption of the posterior portion of the fish without the head.
Assuntos
Golfinho Nariz-de-Garrafa/fisiologia , Peixes-Gato/fisiologia , Comportamento Predatório , AnimaisRESUMO
Cetaceans are protected worldwide but vulnerable to incidental harm from an expanding array of human activities at sea. Managing potential hazards to these highly-mobile populations increasingly requires a detailed understanding of their seasonal distributions and habitats. Pursuant to the urgent need for this knowledge for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, we integrated 23 years of aerial and shipboard cetacean surveys, linked them to environmental covariates obtained from remote sensing and ocean models, and built habitat-based density models for 26 species and 3 multi-species guilds using distance sampling methodology. In the Atlantic, for 11 well-known species, model predictions resembled seasonal movement patterns previously suggested in the literature. For these we produced monthly mean density maps. For lesser-known taxa, and in the Gulf of Mexico, where seasonal movements were less well described, we produced year-round mean density maps. The results revealed high regional differences in small delphinoid densities, confirmed the importance of the continental slope to large delphinoids and of canyons and seamounts to beaked and sperm whales, and quantified seasonal shifts in the densities of migratory baleen whales. The density maps, freely available online, are the first for these regions to be published in the peer-reviewed literature.
Assuntos
Biodiversidade , Cetáceos/fisiologia , Modelos Biológicos , Animais , Oceano Atlântico , Golfo do México , HumanosRESUMO
As long-lived predators that integrate exposures across multiple trophic levels, cetaceans are recognized as sentinels for the health of marine ecosystems. Their utility as sentinels requires the establishment of baseline health parameters. Because cetaceans are protected, measurements obtained with minimal disruption to free ranging animals are highly desirable. In this study we investigated the utility of skin gene expression profiling to monitor health and contaminant exposure in common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Remote integument biopsies were collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico prior to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (May 2010) and during summer and winter for two years following oil contamination (2010-2011). A bottlenose dolphin microarray was used to characterize the skin transcriptomes of 94 individuals from three populations: Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana, and Mississippi Sound, Mississippi/Alabama. Skin transcriptomes did not differ significantly between populations. In contrast, season had a profound effect on gene expression, with nearly one-third of all genes on the array differing in expression between winter and the warmer seasons (moderated T-test; p<0.01, fold-change≥1.5). Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in blubber changed concurrently, reaching >two-fold higher concentrations in summer compared to winter, due to a seasonal decrease in blubber thickness and loss of stored lipid. However, global gene expression did not correlate strongly with seasonally changing contaminant concentrations, most likely because the refractory, lipid-stored metabolites are not substrates for phase I or II xenobiotic detoxification pathways. Rather, processes related to cell proliferation, motility, and differentiation dominated the differences in expression in winter and the warmer seasons. More subtle differences were seen between spring and summer (1.5% of genes differentially expressed). However, two presumed oil-exposed animals from spring presented gene expression profiles more similar to the summer animals (presumed exposed) than to other spring animals. Seasonal effects have not previously been considered in studies assessing gene expression in cetaceans, but clearly must be taken into account when applying transcriptomic analyses to investigate their contaminant exposure or health status.
Assuntos
Golfinho Nariz-de-Garrafa/fisiologia , Estações do Ano , Pele/metabolismo , Transcriptoma , Alabama , Animais , Biópsia , Clima , Análise por Conglomerados , Ecossistema , Feminino , Regulação da Expressão Gênica , Geografia , Golfo do México , Louisiana , Masculino , Análise em Microsséries , Mississippi , Hibridização de Ácido Nucleico , Poluição por Petróleo/análise , Análise de Componente Principal , Poluentes Químicos da Água/análise , XenobióticosRESUMO
A number of studies were initiated in response to the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill to understand potential injuries to bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that inhabit the northern Gulf of Mexico (NGoM) estuarine waters. As part of these studies, remote biopsy skin and blubber samples were collected from dolphins at six field sites that received varying degrees of oiling: Barataria Bay (BB), Chandeleur Sound West (CSW), Chandeleur Sound East (CSE), Mississippi Sound South (MSS), Mississippi Sound North (MSN), and St. Joseph Bay (SJ). Blubber samples from 108 male dolphins were analyzed for persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentrations, as high levels of POPs have been previously reported in other southeastern U.S. dolphins and the potential contribution of these compounds to adverse health effects in NGoM dolphins must be considered. Dolphin blubber levels of summed POPs (ΣPOPs) did not differ significantly across sites (F-test, P=0.9119) [µg/g lipid; geometric mean and 95% CI]; CSW [65.9 (51.4-84.6)], SJ [74.1 (53.0-104)], MSN [74.3 (58.7-93.9)], BB [75.3 (56.4-101)], CSE [80.5 (57.8-112)], and MSS [82.5 (65.9-103)]. Overall, POP concentrations were in the lower half of the range compared to previously reported concentrations from other southeastern U.S. sites. Increased dolphin mortalities have been ongoing in the NGoM and have been suggested to be linked with the DWH oil spill. In addition, lung disease, impaired adrenal function, and serum biochemical abnormalities have been reported in dolphins from BB, an area that was heavily oiled. The results of this study suggest that POPs are likely not a primary contributor to the poor health conditions and increased mortality observed in some populations of NGoM dolphins following the DWH oil spill.