Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices

ABSTRACT The role of cetaceans in marine ecosystems and food webs is scarcely known in the southeastern Pacific. Estimates of secondary and tertiary (carbon) production and daily food intake were deduced for five species of representative cetaceans for different marine habitats of the Galapagos by u...

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Autor principal:	Alava,Juan José
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Universidad de Valparaíso. Facultad de Ciencias del Mar 2009
Materias:	Baleen whales sperm whale bottlenose dolphin killer whale primary and tertiary production trophic level
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-19572009000100010
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0718-195720090001000102009-08-03Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indicesAlava,Juan José Baleen whales sperm whale bottlenose dolphin killer whale primary and tertiary production trophic level ABSTRACT The role of cetaceans in marine ecosystems and food webs is scarcely known in the southeastern Pacific. Estimates of secondary and tertiary (carbon) production and daily food intake were deduced for five species of representative cetaceans for different marine habitats of the Galapagos by using associated calculations of annual primary production and carbon flux, as well as estimations of relative abundance, biomass, absolute density and trophic levels (TL) reported elsewhere. Under these premises, sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) and carnivore-generalist killer whales (Orcinus orca) for open ocean (i.e. no upwelling regions) had the lowest values of tertiary production at the top predator level (0.01-1.01 gC m-2 yr-1), while Bryde's (Balaenoptera edeni) and blue (B. musculus) whales from upwelling zone located at southwest Galapagos Island yielded the highest cetacean production (13.7 and 35.4 gC m-2 yr-1, respectively). Significant positive correlations at a 15% of efficiency transfer were found between the estimated annual primary production and tertiary production of baleen whales, and between annual primary production and tertiary production of toothed cetaceans. When both groups of cetaceans were combined a no significant correlation was observed between cetacean production and annual primary productivity. This outcome was influenced by their different trophic positions in the food chain and different scenarios values of annual primary productivity of the marine ecosystems selected. More research is needed to determine abundance, prey selection, feeding rates, and fecal matter sinking rates from marine mammals in Galapagos waters, as well as their function in the vertical carbon flux.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessUniversidad de Valparaíso. Facultad de Ciencias del MarRevista de biología marina y oceanografía v.44 n.1 20092009-04-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-19572009000100010en10.4067/S0718-19572009000100010
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
topic	Baleen whales sperm whale bottlenose dolphin killer whale primary and tertiary production trophic level
spellingShingle	Baleen whales sperm whale bottlenose dolphin killer whale primary and tertiary production trophic level Alava,Juan José Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
description	ABSTRACT The role of cetaceans in marine ecosystems and food webs is scarcely known in the southeastern Pacific. Estimates of secondary and tertiary (carbon) production and daily food intake were deduced for five species of representative cetaceans for different marine habitats of the Galapagos by using associated calculations of annual primary production and carbon flux, as well as estimations of relative abundance, biomass, absolute density and trophic levels (TL) reported elsewhere. Under these premises, sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) and carnivore-generalist killer whales (Orcinus orca) for open ocean (i.e. no upwelling regions) had the lowest values of tertiary production at the top predator level (0.01-1.01 gC m-2 yr-1), while Bryde's (Balaenoptera edeni) and blue (B. musculus) whales from upwelling zone located at southwest Galapagos Island yielded the highest cetacean production (13.7 and 35.4 gC m-2 yr-1, respectively). Significant positive correlations at a 15% of efficiency transfer were found between the estimated annual primary production and tertiary production of baleen whales, and between annual primary production and tertiary production of toothed cetaceans. When both groups of cetaceans were combined a no significant correlation was observed between cetacean production and annual primary productivity. This outcome was influenced by their different trophic positions in the food chain and different scenarios values of annual primary productivity of the marine ecosystems selected. More research is needed to determine abundance, prey selection, feeding rates, and fecal matter sinking rates from marine mammals in Galapagos waters, as well as their function in the vertical carbon flux.
author	Alava,Juan José
author_facet	Alava,Juan José
author_sort	Alava,Juan José
title	Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
title_short	Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
title_full	Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
title_fullStr	Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
title_full_unstemmed	Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
title_sort	carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the galapagos marine reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices
publisher	Universidad de Valparaíso. Facultad de Ciencias del Mar
publishDate	2009
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-19572009000100010
work_keys_str_mv	AT alavajuanjose carbonproductivityandfluxinthemarineecosystemsofthegalapagosmarinereservebasedoncetaceanabundancesandtrophicindices
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Carbon productivity and flux in the marine ecosystems of the Galapagos Marine Reserve based on cetacean abundances and trophic indices

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