Dear all,
We are pleased to announce the publication of the following article:
"Quantifying the predation on sardine and hake by cetaceans in the
Atlantic waters of the Iberian peninsula"
Which had been already published on-line, but recently has been also
published on paper format in "Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies
in Oceanography"
The citation and the abstract is bellow:
Santos, M.B., Saavedra, C., Pierce, G. P. (2014). Quantifying the
predation on sardine and hake by cetaceans in the Atlantic waters of the
Iberian peninsula. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in
Oceanography, 106: 232-244.
Construction of ecosystem models requires detailed information on
trophic interactions which may not be readily available, especially for
top predators such as cetaceans. Such information can also be useful to
estimate natural mortality (M) for fish stock assessments and to
evaluate the potential for competition between cetaceans and fisheries.
In the present paper we provide estimates and confidence limits, taking
into account sampling error, for consumption of fish by the four most
common cetaceans along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula,
while highlighting the uncertainties and biases inherent in the
information presently available on energy requirements, diet and
population size. We estimated that common dolphins (Delphinus delphis)
consume around 6800 (95% CI, 4871–9476) tons of sardine (Sardina
pilchardus), 8800 (6195–12,647) tons of gadids, 1100 (721–1662) tons of
hake (Merluccius merluccius) and 1900 (1222–2752) tons of scads
(Trachurus sp.) annually. For striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba),
prey consumed were 900 (196–2661) tons of sardine, 6200 (3448–11,129)
tons of gadids, 200 (11–504) tons of hake and 1600 (0–5318) tons of
scads. Estimated amounts taken by harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena)
and bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are much lower, reflecting
their low abundance in the area. Cetacean predation on sardine
represents 2–8% of the current M value, indicating that cetaceans
probably have little influence on sardine population dynamics. For the
southern hake stock, estimated average removal by cetaceans often
exceeds M. While this may indicate that both M and the consumption
estimates for hake require revision it also suggests that cetaceans
could have a more significant impact on hake populations. Different
approaches to estimation of energy requirements of cetaceans can result
in figures that differ by at least a factor of 2. The lack of good
estimates of field metabolic rate for most species probably represents
the most serious barrier to reliably quantifying the role of cetaceans
in the ecosystem.
The article can be found at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967064513003810
If you can't download it from ScienceDirect, you can look for it in
Researchgate.com or request a copy to my email: camilo.saave...@vi.ieo.es
Best Wishes,
C.Saavedra
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