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Extrapolating cetacean densities to quantitatively assess human impacts on populations in the high seas

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Date
01/06/2017
Author
Mannocci, Laura
Roberts, Jason J.
Miller, David L.
Halpin, Patrick N.
Keywords
Extrapolation
Habitat-based density models
Survey coverage
GE Environmental Sciences
GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
NDAS
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Abstract
As human activities expand beyond national jurisdictions to the high seas, there is an increasing need to consider anthropogenic impacts to species inhabiting these waters. The current scarcity of scientific observations of cetaceans in the high seas impedes the assessment of population-level impacts of these activities. We developed plausible density estimates to facilitate a quantitative assessment of anthropogenic impacts on cetacean populations in these waters. Our study region extended from a well-surveyed region within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone into a large region of the western North Atlantic sparsely surveyed for cetaceans. We modeled densities of 15 cetacean taxa with available line transect survey data and habitat covariates and extrapolated predictions to sparsely surveyed regions. We formulated models to reduce the extent of extrapolation beyond covariate ranges, and constrained them to model simple and generalizable relationships. To evaluate confidence in the predictions, we mapped where predictions were made outside sampled covariate ranges, examined alternate models, and compared predicted densities with maps of sightings from sources that could not be integrated into our models. Confidence levels in model results depended on the taxon and geographic area and highlighted the need for additional surveying in environmentally distinct areas. With application of necessary caution, our density estimates can inform management needs in the high seas, such as the quantification of potential cetacean interactions with military training exercises, shipping, fisheries, and deep-sea mining and be used to delineate areas of special biological significance in international waters. Our approach is generally applicable to other marine taxa and geographic regions for which management will be implemented but data are sparse.
Citation
Mannocci , L , Roberts , J J , Miller , D L & Halpin , P N 2017 , ' Extrapolating cetacean densities to quantitatively assess human impacts on populations in the high seas ' , Conservation Biology , vol. 31 , no. 3 , pp. 601-614 . https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12856
Publication
Conservation Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12856
ISSN
0888-8892
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Description
Funding for this study came from the U.S. Fleet Forces Command (Cooperative Agreement N62470-13-2-8008), NASA (NNX08AK73G) and NOAA/NMFS (EE-133F-14-SE-3558).
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URL
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85018956099&partnerID=8YFLogxK
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/10682

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