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New determination of prey and parasite species for northern Indian Ocean Blue Whales
Citation
de Vos, A and Faux, CE and Marthick, J and Dickinson, JL and Jarman, SN, New determination of prey and parasite species for northern Indian Ocean Blue Whales, Frontiers in Marine Science, 5 Article 104. ISSN 2296-7745 (2018) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2018 de Vos, Faux, Marthick, Dickinson and Jarman. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00104
Abstract
Blue whales are little studied, face significant anthropogenic threats and within the
Northern Indian Ocean, have a restricted range, making them an archetype for
conservation needs of megafauna around the world. We studied feeding behavior of
blue whales using dietary DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples. While globally blue
whale populations feed predominantly on Euphausiidae, 87% of prey DNA amplicons
extracted from fecal samples from this population were sergestid shrimp, demonstrating
that blue whales can locate and feed on dense swarms of other types of prey when
they occur. Within the Indian Ocean sergestids are present within the top 300m, which
correlates with the deep scattering layer observed by hydroacoustics. Studies suggest
that this requirement to dive deeper in search of prey likely explains the prevalence of
fluke up diving within this population of blue whales relative to other parts of the globe.
Furthermore, this study revealed the presence of acanthocephalan endoparasites within
the stomach and intestines of the Northern Indian Ocean blue whales. This represents the
first record of Acanthocephala in blue whales in the Northern Indian Ocean and highlights
the need for further studies on both the ecto- and endoparasitic flora and monitoring of
health of these cetaceans for their management and conservation.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | DNA metabarcoding, Sri Lanka, Northern Indian Ocean, feces, Sergestidae, Euphausiidae, acanthocephala, krill |
| Research Division: | Environmental Sciences |
| Research Group: | Ecological Applications |
| Research Field: | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change |
| Objective Division: | Environment |
| Objective Group: | Ecosystem Assessment and Management |
| Objective Field: | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales |
| Author: | Marthick, J (Mr James Marthick) |
| Author: | Dickinson, JL (Associate Professor Joanne Dickinson) |
| ID Code: | 125853 |
| Year Published: | 2018 |
| Deposited By: | Menzies Institute for Medical Research |
| Deposited On: | 2018-05-09 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-06-07 |
| Downloads: | 13 View Download Statistics |
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