Trait-mediated shifts and climate velocity decouple an endothermic marine predator and its ectothermic prey.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is redistributing biodiversity globally and distributional shifts have been found to follow local climate velocities. It is largely assumed that marine endotherms such as cetaceans might shift more slowly than ectotherms in response to warming and would primarily follow changes in prey, but distributional shifts in cetaceans are difficult to quantify. Here we use data from fisheries bycatch and strandings to examine changes in the distribution of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas), and assess shifts in pilot whales and their prey relative to climate velocity in a rapidly warming region of the Northwest Atlantic. We found a poleward shift in pilot whale distribution that exceeded climate velocity and occurred at more than three times the rate of fish and invertebra

SUBMITTER: Thorne LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8445949 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature