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This report builds upon previous reports to assess current methodologies used for evaluating cumulative effects of stressors on marine mammals and identify new approaches that could improve these assessments. This review focuses on ways to quantify exposure-related changes in the behavior, health, or body condition of individual marine mammals and makes recommendations for future research initiatives.
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Consensus
·2017
Marine mammals face a large array of stressors, including loss of habitat, chemical and noise pollution, and bycatch in fishing, which alone kills hundreds of thousands of marine mammals per year globally. To discern the factors contributing to population trends, scientists must consider the full co...
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Description
On the basis of input from an NRC workshop and literature review, the committee will review the present scientific understanding of cumulative effects of anthropogenic stressors on marine mammals and assess current methodologies used for evaluating cumulative effects. The study will also identify new approaches that could improve the assessment of cumulative effects. The committee will examine theoretical and field methods used to assess the effect of anthropogenic stressors for:
- Short or infrequent exposure in the context of other known stressors (i.e. multiple stressors, both natural and anthropogenic); and
- Chronic exposure in the context of other known stressors;
The review of methodologies will focus on ways to quantify exposure-related changes in the behavior, health, or body condition of individual marine mammals and assess the potential to use indicators of health or body condition to estimate changes in vital rates and, in turn, estimate the potential population-level effects.
Contributors
Sponsors
Department of Interior
Marine Mammal Commission
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Office of Naval Research
Staff
Kim Waddell
Lead