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Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans

Understanding cumulative effects of multiple threats is key to guiding effective management to conserve endangered species. The critically endangered, Southern Resident killer whale population of the northeastern Pacific Ocean provides a data-rich case to explore anthropogenic threats on population...

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Autores principales: Lacy, Robert C., Williams, Rob, Ashe, Erin, Balcomb III, Kenneth C., Brent, Lauren J. N., Clark, Christopher W., Croft, Darren P., Giles, Deborah A., MacDuffee, Misty, Paquet, Paul C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5658391/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29074942
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14471-0
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author Lacy, Robert C.
Williams, Rob
Ashe, Erin
Balcomb III, Kenneth C.
Brent, Lauren J. N.
Clark, Christopher W.
Croft, Darren P.
Giles, Deborah A.
MacDuffee, Misty
Paquet, Paul C.
author_facet Lacy, Robert C.
Williams, Rob
Ashe, Erin
Balcomb III, Kenneth C.
Brent, Lauren J. N.
Clark, Christopher W.
Croft, Darren P.
Giles, Deborah A.
MacDuffee, Misty
Paquet, Paul C.
author_sort Lacy, Robert C.
collection PubMed
description Understanding cumulative effects of multiple threats is key to guiding effective management to conserve endangered species. The critically endangered, Southern Resident killer whale population of the northeastern Pacific Ocean provides a data-rich case to explore anthropogenic threats on population viability. Primary threats include: limitation of preferred prey, Chinook salmon; anthropogenic noise and disturbance, which reduce foraging efficiency; and high levels of stored contaminants, including PCBs. We constructed a population viability analysis to explore possible demographic trajectories and the relative importance of anthropogenic stressors. The population is fragile, with no growth projected under current conditions, and decline expected if new or increased threats are imposed. Improvements in fecundity and calf survival are needed to reach a conservation objective of 2.3% annual population growth. Prey limitation is the most important factor affecting population growth. However, to meet recovery targets through prey management alone, Chinook abundance would have to be sustained near the highest levels since the 1970s. The most optimistic mitigation of noise and contaminants would make the difference between a declining and increasing population, but would be insufficient to reach recovery targets. Reducing acoustic disturbance by 50% combined with increasing Chinook by 15% would allow the population to reach 2.3% growth.
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spelling pubmed-56583912017-10-31 Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans Lacy, Robert C. Williams, Rob Ashe, Erin Balcomb III, Kenneth C. Brent, Lauren J. N. Clark, Christopher W. Croft, Darren P. Giles, Deborah A. MacDuffee, Misty Paquet, Paul C. Sci Rep Article Understanding cumulative effects of multiple threats is key to guiding effective management to conserve endangered species. The critically endangered, Southern Resident killer whale population of the northeastern Pacific Ocean provides a data-rich case to explore anthropogenic threats on population viability. Primary threats include: limitation of preferred prey, Chinook salmon; anthropogenic noise and disturbance, which reduce foraging efficiency; and high levels of stored contaminants, including PCBs. We constructed a population viability analysis to explore possible demographic trajectories and the relative importance of anthropogenic stressors. The population is fragile, with no growth projected under current conditions, and decline expected if new or increased threats are imposed. Improvements in fecundity and calf survival are needed to reach a conservation objective of 2.3% annual population growth. Prey limitation is the most important factor affecting population growth. However, to meet recovery targets through prey management alone, Chinook abundance would have to be sustained near the highest levels since the 1970s. The most optimistic mitigation of noise and contaminants would make the difference between a declining and increasing population, but would be insufficient to reach recovery targets. Reducing acoustic disturbance by 50% combined with increasing Chinook by 15% would allow the population to reach 2.3% growth. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5658391/ /pubmed/29074942 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14471-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Lacy, Robert C.
Williams, Rob
Ashe, Erin
Balcomb III, Kenneth C.
Brent, Lauren J. N.
Clark, Christopher W.
Croft, Darren P.
Giles, Deborah A.
MacDuffee, Misty
Paquet, Paul C.
Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
title Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
title_full Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
title_fullStr Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
title_full_unstemmed Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
title_short Evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
title_sort evaluating anthropogenic threats to endangered killer whales to inform effective recovery plans
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5658391/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29074942
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14471-0
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