scholarly journals Can Right Whales Out-Swim Climate Change? Can We?

Oceanography ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-21
Author(s):  
Andrew Pershing ◽  
◽  
Daniel Pendleton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Potential Productivity ◽  
Northwest Atlantic ◽  
Right Whales ◽  
Additional Loss ◽  
New Habitats

The article by Meyer-Gutbrod and colleagues in this issue demonstrates that the endangered North Atlantic right whale’s preferred prey has declined as the Northwest Atlantic has warmed. Right whales are now spending more time foraging in historically colder habitats, but they are producing fewer calves. The low calf production could reflect a delay between the decline in the potential productivity of their traditional habitats and its increase in their new habitats. This delay would result in a “climate deficit” in their fitness. Right whales must also learn to forage successfully in their new habitats, creating an additional loss of fitness termed an “adaptation deficit.” Humans will also face unavoidable climate deficits, but we have more options for minimizing adaptation deficits.

North Atlantic Oscillation; a Climatic Indicator to Predict Hydropower Availability in Scandinavia

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 415-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cintia B. Uvo ◽  
Ronny Berndtsson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Climate Variability ◽  
North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Winter Precipitation ◽  
Model Driven ◽  
The World ◽  
Hydropower Production ◽  
Precipitation And Temperature

Climate variability and climate change are of great concern to economists and energy producers as well as environmentalists as both affect the precipitation and temperature in many regions of the world. Among those affected by climate variability is the Scandinavian Peninsula. Particularly, its winter precipitation and temperature are affected by the variations of the so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The objective of this paper is to analyze the spatial distribution of the influence of NAO over Scandinavia. This analysis is a first step to establishing a predictive model, driven by a climatic indicator such as NAO, for the available water resources of different regions in Scandinavia. Such a tool would be valuable for predicting potential of hydropower production one or more seasons in advance.

scholarly journals Spatial Ecology of Atlantic Halibut across the Northwest Atlantic: A Recovering Species in an Era of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Nancy L. Shackell ◽  
Jonathan A. D. Fisher ◽  
Cornelia E. den Heyer ◽  
Daniel R. Hennen ◽  
Andrew C. Seitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Spatial Ecology ◽  
Atlantic Halibut ◽  
Northwest Atlantic

scholarly journals Distributions of Arctic and Northwest Atlantic killer whales inferred from oxygen isotopes

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory J. D. Matthews ◽  
Fred J. Longstaffe ◽  
Jack W. Lawson ◽  
Steven H. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotopes ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Newfoundland And Labrador ◽  
Killer Whales ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Northwest Atlantic ◽  
Oxygen And Carbon Isotope ◽  
Stable Oxygen ◽  
Morphological Differences

AbstractKiller whales (Orcinus orca) are distributed widely in all oceans, although they are most common in coastal waters of temperate and high-latitude regions. The species’ distribution has not been fully described in the northwest Atlantic (NWA), where killer whales move into seasonally ice-free waters of the eastern Canadian Arctic (ECA) and occur year-round off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador farther south. We measured stable oxygen and carbon isotope ratios in dentine phosphate (δ18OP) and structural carbonate (δ18OSC, δ13CSC) of whole teeth and annual growth layers from killer whales that stranded in the ECA (n = 11) and NWA (n = 7). Source δ18O of marine water (δ18Omarine) at location of origin was estimated from dentine δ18OPvalues, and then compared with predicted isoscape values to assign individual distributions. Dentine δ18OPvalues were also assessed against those of other known-origin North Atlantic odontocetes for spatial reference. Most ECA and NWA killer whales had mean δ18OPand estimated δ18Omarinevalues consistent with18O-depleted, high-latitude waters north of the Gulf Stream, above which a marked decrease in baseline δ18O values occurs. Several individuals, however, had relatively high values that reflected origins in18O-enriched, low-latitude waters below this boundary. Within-tooth δ18OSCranges on the order of 1–2‰ indicated interannual variation in distribution. Different distributions inferred from oxygen isotopes suggest there is not a single killer whale population distributed across the northwest Atlantic, and corroborate dietary and morphological differences of purported ecotypes in the region.

Linking climate, gross primary productivity, and site index across forests of the western United States

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1710-1721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron R. Weiskittel ◽  
Nicholas L. Crookston ◽  
Philip J. Radtke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Gross Primary Production ◽  
Site Index ◽  
Nonparametric Model ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Geographic Scale ◽  
Potential Productivity ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Assessing forest productivity is important for developing effective management regimes and predicting future growth. Despite some important limitations, the most common means for quantifying forest stand-level potential productivity is site index (SI). Another measure of productivity is gross primary production (GPP). In this paper, SI is compared with GPP estimates obtained from 3-PG and NASA’s MODIS satellite. Models were constructed that predict SI and both measures of GPP from climate variables. Results indicated that a nonparametric model with two climate-related predictor variables explained over 68% and 76% of the variation in SI and GPP, respectively. The relationship between GPP and SI was limited (R2 of 36%–56%), while the relationship between GPP and climate (R2 of 76%–91%) was stronger than the one between SI and climate (R2 of 68%–78%). The developed SI model was used to predict SI under varying expected climate change scenarios. The predominant trend was an increase of 0–5 m in SI, with some sites experiencing reductions of up to 10 m. The developed model can predict SI across a broad geographic scale and into the future, which statistical growth models can use to represent the expected effects of climate change more effectively.

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