Authors: Steven H Ferguson Jeff W Higdon
Publish Date: 2006/07/25
Volume: 150, Issue: 2, Pages: 318-329
Abstract
Pinnipeds display a remarkable variation in life history adaptations while successfully inhabiting almost every marine environment We explore how they have done this by grouping the world’s pinniped species according to their environmental conditions mating systems lactation strategies and timing of life histories Next we tested whether any of these clusters provide information about risk of extinction using the International Union for Nature and the Conservation of Natural Resources status ranks Seals at risk were not characterized by differences in lactation pattern 22 short vs 46 long mating system 24 multimale vs 35 harems or timing of life history events 23 fast vs 42 slow but did differ based on four environmental groupings Grouping traits rather than seals described two clusters one that included the environmental trait primary productivity and a second one that included all other environmental variables seasonality latitude and temperature Based on this result and theoretical considerations we plotted seals according to energy primary productivity and variation seasonality and found a pattern analogous to that of the same four groups determined by cluster analysis of all environmental variables Of the two pinniped groups representing low variation equatorial and high productivity ten of 21 seal species have been designated at risk in contrast to none of the 13 seal species adapted to high variation We conclude that seals appear to be best adapted to seasonal environments and thus conservation efforts may benefit by concentrating on species inhabiting less variable environments
Keywords: