whales & climate

Humpback whales have been recognised to undergo recent changes in migration, behaviour and health and these shifts have been attributed, in some cases, to climate change. These changes raise concerns over the future of population recoveries from severe whaling in the last century. Environmental drivers influencing feeding, breeding and migrations of humpback whales include sea surface temperature and bathymetry as well as chlorophyll a, salinity, distance offshore and currents. The challenge remains to predict abundance, distribution, and movement changes of whales under climate change in complex systems that have large temporal and spatial variations. Key research themes include whale ecology, ocean processes, biogeochemistry and future climate models.