Cargando…

Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range

Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic i...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ferguson, Steven H., Yurkowski, David J., Hudson, Justine M., Edkins, Tera, Willing, Cornelia, Watt, Cortney A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367
_version_ 1784614655944032256
author Ferguson, Steven H.
Yurkowski, David J.
Hudson, Justine M.
Edkins, Tera
Willing, Cornelia
Watt, Cortney A.
author_facet Ferguson, Steven H.
Yurkowski, David J.
Hudson, Justine M.
Edkins, Tera
Willing, Cornelia
Watt, Cortney A.
author_sort Ferguson, Steven H.
collection PubMed
description Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic in the core area of the species’ geographic range have larger body size than their conspecifics at the southern range periphery in Hudson Bay (HB). We investigated the mechanism for this north and south divergence as it relates to ovarian reproductive activity (ORA = total corpora) that combines morphometric data with ovarian corpora counted from female reproductive tracts. Our study aim was to assess the relative influence of age and body size of female beluga whale on ORA in the two populations. Female beluga whale ORA increased more quickly with age (63% partial variation explained) in BB than in HB (41%). In contrast, body length in HB female beluga whales accounted for considerably more of the total variation (12% vs. 1%) in ORA compared to BB whales. We speculate that female HB beluga whale ORA was more strongly linked with body length due to higher population density resulting in food competition that favors the energetic advantages of larger body size during seasonal food limitations. Understanding the evolutionary mechanism of how ORA varies across a species’ range will assist conservation efforts in anticipating and mitigating future challenges associated with a warming planet.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8668808
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-86688082021-12-21 Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range Ferguson, Steven H. Yurkowski, David J. Hudson, Justine M. Edkins, Tera Willing, Cornelia Watt, Cortney A. Ecol Evol Research Articles Identification of phenotypic characteristics in reproductively successful individuals provides important insights into the evolutionary processes that cause range shifts due to environmental change. Female beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Baffin Bay region (BB) of the Canadian Arctic in the core area of the species’ geographic range have larger body size than their conspecifics at the southern range periphery in Hudson Bay (HB). We investigated the mechanism for this north and south divergence as it relates to ovarian reproductive activity (ORA = total corpora) that combines morphometric data with ovarian corpora counted from female reproductive tracts. Our study aim was to assess the relative influence of age and body size of female beluga whale on ORA in the two populations. Female beluga whale ORA increased more quickly with age (63% partial variation explained) in BB than in HB (41%). In contrast, body length in HB female beluga whales accounted for considerably more of the total variation (12% vs. 1%) in ORA compared to BB whales. We speculate that female HB beluga whale ORA was more strongly linked with body length due to higher population density resulting in food competition that favors the energetic advantages of larger body size during seasonal food limitations. Understanding the evolutionary mechanism of how ORA varies across a species’ range will assist conservation efforts in anticipating and mitigating future challenges associated with a warming planet. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8668808/ /pubmed/34938510 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Ferguson, Steven H.
Yurkowski, David J.
Hudson, Justine M.
Edkins, Tera
Willing, Cornelia
Watt, Cortney A.
Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_full Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_fullStr Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_full_unstemmed Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_short Larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
title_sort larger body size leads to greater female beluga whale ovarian reproductive activity at the southern periphery of their range
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8668808/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938510
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8367
work_keys_str_mv AT fergusonstevenh largerbodysizeleadstogreaterfemalebelugawhaleovarianreproductiveactivityatthesouthernperipheryoftheirrange
AT yurkowskidavidj largerbodysizeleadstogreaterfemalebelugawhaleovarianreproductiveactivityatthesouthernperipheryoftheirrange
AT hudsonjustinem largerbodysizeleadstogreaterfemalebelugawhaleovarianreproductiveactivityatthesouthernperipheryoftheirrange
AT edkinstera largerbodysizeleadstogreaterfemalebelugawhaleovarianreproductiveactivityatthesouthernperipheryoftheirrange
AT willingcornelia largerbodysizeleadstogreaterfemalebelugawhaleovarianreproductiveactivityatthesouthernperipheryoftheirrange
AT wattcortneya largerbodysizeleadstogreaterfemalebelugawhaleovarianreproductiveactivityatthesouthernperipheryoftheirrange