Agrelo Macarena, Daura-Jorge Fábio G, Rowntree Victoria J, Sironi Mariano, Hammond Philip S, Ingram Simon N, Marón Carina F, Vilches Florencia O, Seger Jon, Payne Roger, Simões-Lopes Paulo C
Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia, Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil.
Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas, O'Higgins 4380, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires 1429, Argentina.
Sci Adv. 2021 Oct 15;7(42):eabh2823. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh2823.
Whales contribute to marine ecosystem functioning, and they may play a role in mitigating climate change and supporting the Antarctic krill () population, a keystone prey species that sustains the entire Southern Ocean (SO) ecosystem. By analyzing a five-decade (1971–2017) data series of individual southern right whales (SRWs; ) photo-identified at Península Valdés, Argentina, we found a marked increase in whale mortality rates following El Niño events. By modeling how the population responds to changes in the frequency and intensity of El Niño events, we found that such events are likely to impede SRW population recovery and could even cause population decline. Such outcomes have the potential to disrupt food-web interactions in the SO, weakening that ecosystem’s contribution to the mitigation of climate change at a global scale.
鲸鱼对海洋生态系统的功能有贡献，它们可能在缓解气候变化和维持南极磷虾种群方面发挥作用，南极磷虾是维持整个南大洋（SO）生态系统的关键猎物物种。通过分析在阿根廷瓦尔德斯半岛对个体南露脊鲸（SRW）进行照片识别的长达五十年（1971 - 2017年）的数据系列，我们发现厄尔尼诺事件后鲸鱼死亡率显著上升。通过模拟该种群对厄尔尼诺事件频率和强度变化的反应，我们发现此类事件可能会阻碍南露脊鲸种群的恢复，甚至可能导致种群数量下降。这些结果有可能扰乱南大洋的食物网相互作用，削弱该生态系统在全球范围内对缓解气候变化的贡献。
