MEPS

Marine Ecology Progress Series

MEPS is a leading hybrid research journal on all aspects of marine, coastal and estuarine ecology. Priority is given to outstanding research that advances our ecological understanding.

Online: ISSN 1616-1599

Print: ISSN 0171-8630

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps

Volume contents
Mar Ecol Prog Ser 762:111-133 (2025)

Seasonal changes in physical oceanography modulate cetacean predator-prey dynamics in the San Diego Trough

ABSTRACT:

In marine ecosystems, cetaceans are large mobile predators that depend on maximizing foraging efficiency. Their presence within a habitat can therefore be strongly related to the modulation of local prey by oceanographic conditions. Understanding how cetaceans are impacted by prey responses to the physical environment is challenging due to the difficulty of collecting presence data of cetaceans and their prey over long, comparable time periods. We used passive and active acoustic recordings collected from moorings within the San Diego Trough, along with physical oceanographic sampling (i.e. in situ, satellite-derived, and ocean general circulation model measurements), to elucidate relationships between cetaceans, their prey, and the physical environment. Our results show that the predator-prey dynamics of some cetaceans within the San Diego Trough are influenced by seasonal changes in the physical oceanographic conditions and processes that shape their prey resources. Specifically, common dolphin Delphinus delphis foraging activity increased during conditions associated with increased presence of diel vertically migrating fish prey. Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus foraging-associated acoustic activity increased during periods with increased presence of mid-water crustacean zooplankton and was replaced with breeding-associated acoustic activity during conditions associated with the waning of mid-water crustacean zooplankton. Fin whale B. physalus foraging-associated calling activity was more complex to model, most likely because these animals have a generalist diet and occupy this area year-round. Our results highlight environmental conditions and features relevant to cetaceans inhabiting this region and may aid in developing better spatially explicit management actions.

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Shelby Bloom (Corresponding Author)

  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
, sbloom@ucsd.edu , sbloomer50@gmail.com

Michaela Alksne (Co-author)

  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
m1alksne@ucsd.edu

Ally Rice (Co-author)

  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
ally.c.rice@gmail.com

Matthias Lankhorst (Co-author)

  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
mlankhorst@ucsd.edu

Ana Širović (Co-author)

  • Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491 Trondheim, Norway
ana.sirovic@ntnu.no

Joseph Warren (Co-author)

  • School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Southampton, NY 11968, USA
joe.warren@stonybrook.edu

Simone Baumann-Pickering (Co-author)

  • Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
sbaumann@ucsd.edu

Handling Editor:
Robert M. Suryan, Juneau, Alaska, USA

Reviewers:
E. Ferguson and 2 anonymous referees

Acknowledgements:

We thank the science staff and vessel crew members for coordinating instrument deployment, recovery, and data processing. We thank Ganesh Gopalakrishan and team for the CASE-STSE data set used in the physical oceanography analysis. We also thank all members of the Scripps Acoustic Ecology Lab, the Scripps Whale Acoustics Lab, and the Scripps Machine Listening Lab for their support over the course of this project. In particular, thanks to Shannon Dolan and Annebelle Kok for their mentorship and assistance with the active acoustic analysis, and Ashlyn Giddings for providing knowledge on finite-size Lyapunov exponents. Thanks to Catalina Aguilar, Natalie Posdaljian, Vanessa ZoBell, Morgan Ziegenhorn, and Rebecca Cohen for their knowledge, advice, and programming skills related to habitat modeling. Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research Marine Mammal and Biology Program N00014-20-1-4000 and N00014-21-1-2611, the Office of Naval Research Defense University Research Instrumentation Program N00014-15-1-2858, and US Navy Pacific Fleet, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest N62473-22-2-0014. The present work was part of S.G.B.’s MSc thesis.

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