Castrillon Juliana, Bengtson Nash Susan
Southern Ocean Persistent Organic Pollutants Program Environmental Futures Research Institute (EFRI) Griffith University Nathan Qld. Australia.
Ecol Evol. 2020 May 13;10(12):6144-6162. doi: 10.1002/ece3.6301. eCollection 2020 Jun.
The ability to accurately gauge the body condition of free-swimming cetaceans is invaluable in population and conservation biology, due to the direct implications that this measure has on individual fitness, survival, and reproductive success. Furthermore, monitoring temporal change in body condition offers insight into foraging success over time, and therefore the health of the supporting ecosystem, as well as a species' resilience. These parameters are particularly relevant in the context of widespread and accelerated, climate-induced habitat change. There are, however, significant logistical challenges involved with research and monitoring of large cetaceans, which often preclude direct measure of body condition of live individuals. Consequently, a wide variety of indirect approaches, or proxies, for estimating energetic stores have been proposed over past decades. To date, no single, standardized, approach has been shown to serve as a robust estimation of body condition across species, age categories, and in both live and dead individuals. Nonetheless, it is clear that streamlining and advancing body condition measures would carry significant benefits for diverse areas of cetacean research and management. Here, we review traditional approaches and new applications for the evaluation of cetacean energetic reserves. Specific attention is given to the criteria of measure performance (sensitivity and accuracy), level of invasiveness, cost and effort required for implementation, as well as versatility e.g. applicability across different species, age groups, as well as living versus deceased animals. Measures have been benchmarked against these criteria in an effort to identify key candidates for further development, and key research priorities in the field.
准确评估自由游动的鲸类动物的身体状况，在种群生物学和保护生物学中具有极高的价值，因为这一指标对个体健康、生存及繁殖成功率有着直接影响。此外，监测身体状况随时间的变化，能让我们了解一段时间内的觅食成功率，进而洞察支撑该生态系统的健康状况以及物种的恢复能力。在气候引发的栖息地变化广泛且加速的背景下，这些参数尤为重要。然而，对大型鲸类动物进行研究和监测存在重大的后勤挑战，这常常使得无法直接测量活体动物的身体状况。因此，在过去几十年里，人们提出了各种各样间接估算能量储备的方法，即替代指标。到目前为止，还没有一种单一的、标准化的方法能够在不同物种、年龄类别以及活体和死亡个体中，都作为对身体状况的可靠估算。尽管如此，很明显，简化和改进身体状况测量方法将给鲸类动物研究和管理的各个领域带来显著益处。在此，我们回顾评估鲸类动物能量储备的传统方法和新应用。特别关注测量性能标准（敏感性和准确性）、侵入性水平、实施所需成本和工作量，以及通用性，例如在不同物种、年龄组以及活体与死亡动物中的适用性。已根据这些标准对各项测量方法进行了评估，以确定进一步发展的关键候选方法以及该领域的关键研究重点。
