Baleen whale cortisol levels reveal a physiological response to 20th century whaling.

ABSTRACT: One of the most important challenges researchers and managers confront in conservation ecology is predicting a population's response to sub-lethal stressors. Such predictions have been particularly elusive when assessing responses of large marine mammals to past anthropogenic pressures. Recently developed techniques involving baleen whale earplugs combine age estimates with cortisol measurements to assess spatial and temporal stress/stressor relationships. Here we show a relationship between baseline-corrected cortisol levels and corresponding whaling counts of fin, humpback, and blue whales in the Northern Hemisphere spanning the 20th century. We also model the impact of alternative demographic and environmental factors and determine that increased anomalies of sea surface temperature ove

SUBMITTER: Trumble SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6215000 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature