Assessing the risk of ships striking large whales in marine spatial planning.

Marine spatial planning provides a comprehensive framework for managing multiple uses of the marine environment and has the potential to minimize environmental impacts and reduce conflicts among users. Spatially explicit assessments of the risks to key marine species from human activities are a requirement of marine spatial planning. We assessed the risk of ships striking humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), blue (Balaenoptera musculus), and fin (Balaenoptera physalus) whales in alternative shipping routes derived from patterns of shipping traffic off Southern California (U.S.A.). Specifically, we developed whale-habitat models and assumed ship-strike risk for the alternative shipping routes was proportional to the number of whales predicted by the models to occur within each route. This definition of risk assumes all ships travel within a single route. We also calculated risk assuming ships travel via multiple routes. We estimated the potential for conflict between shipping and other uses (military training and fishing) due to overlap with the routes. We also estimated the overlap between shipping routes and protected areas. The route with the lowest risk for humpback whales had the highest risk for fin whales and vice versa. Risk to both species may be ameliorated by creating a new route south of the northern Channel Islands and spreading traffic between this new route and the existing route in the Santa Barbara Channel. Creating a longer route may reduce the overlap between shipping and other uses by concentrating shipping traffic. Blue whales are distributed more evenly across our study area than humpback and fin whales; thus, risk could not be ameliorated by concentrating shipping traffic in any of the routes we considered. Reducing ship-strike risk for blue whales may be necessary because our estimate of the potential number of strikes suggests that they are likely to exceed allowable levels of anthropogenic impacts established under U.S. laws.

A quieting ocean: unintended consequence of a fluctuating economy.

Simultaneous long-term monitoring of underwater sound and ship traffic provided an opportunity to study how low-frequency noise correlated with ocean-based commercial shipping trends. Between 2007 and 2010 changes in regional shipping off southern California occurred as a consequence of economic and regulatory events. Underwater average noise levels measured before and during these events showed a net reduction of 12 dB. Statistical models revealed that a reduction of 1 ship transit per day resulted in 1 dB decrease in average noise. This synthesis of maritime traffic statistics with ocean noise monitoring provides an important step in understanding the magnitude and potential effects of chronic noise in marine habitats.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of Floerkea proserpinacoides (Limnanthaceae), an annual plant of the deciduous forest of eastern North America.

Because environmental filters are temporally and spatially heterogeneous, there often is a lack of significant relationship between the spatial patterns of successive life stages in plant populations. In this study, we determined the spatiotemporal relationships between different life stages in two populations of an annual plant of the deciduous forests of eastern North America, Floerkea proserpinacoides. Demographic surveys were done over a 4-yr period, and experiments were performed in the field and under controlled conditions to test for the effects of various environmental factors on population dynamics. There was a general lack of relationship between the spatial patterns of seed bank and seedling density, and a lack of similarity between their spatial correlograms. This was related mostly to the effects of spatially variable environmental filters operating on germination and emergence. However, environmental filters acting on plant survival were stable through time and contributed to stabilize the density and spatial patterns of the populations. Despite density-dependent presenescence mortality, spatial patterns of seedlings and mature individuals were similar and their correlograms were alike, suggesting that mortality did not fully compensate for density. Estimated fecundity was negatively correlated with population density over the study period. Although flower production started only 2-3 wk after emergence, seed maturation mostly occurred at the end of the life cycle, just before the onset of plant senescence. Yet, individual fecundity was low for an annual plant, i.e., 3.0 ± 0.5 mature seeds/plant (mean ± 1 SE). Seed predation by vertebrates was not significant. Low soil moisture had little effect on the total number of seeds germinating, although it slowed down the germination process. In quadrats where leaf litter was experimentally doubled, seedling emergence was lower than in control quadrats; in quadrats where leaf litter was completely removed, emergence did not differ from that in control quadrats. Susceptibility to drought stress was higher for seedlings than for mature plants. Although the species does not maintain a long-term persistent soil seed bank, other factors, such as density-dependent fecundity and autogamy, may temper population fluctuations through time and reduce the probability of local extinction.