Guarding against oversimplifying the fundamental drivers of southern elephant seal population dynamics
Guarding against oversimplifying the fundamental drivers of southern elephant seal population dynamics
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防止过度简化南象海豹种群动态的基本驱动因素
DOI：
10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01938.x
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
C. Bradshaw
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
C. McMahon;I. Field;M. Hindell;S. de Little;C. Bradshaw
最近，Vergani等人（2008）研究了南大洋大西洋海域南象海豹种群动态（断奶数量）和觅食性能（饮食变化）的气候驱动因素。研究的主要结论是，在拉尼娜年份，海象断奶的数量更大，而在乔治王岛的研究种群中，大多数海象觅食的地区，海洋温度持续升高。作者推断，这些条件导致猎物质量和数量的提高；然而，他们提出的许多问题和假设已经在南大洋的其他地方得到了解决。我们认为，如果作者查阅和研究了大量证实（在某些情况下，不支持）他们的许多结论的现有文献，就可以避免大量的猜测和不确定性。在生物地理学中，这种空间上有限的关注增加了在解释上犯重大错误的风险。
Recently, Vergani et al. (2008) examined the climatic drivers of population dynamics (weaning mass) and foraging performance (diet variation) from southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The principal conclusion was that elephant seal weaning masses were greater in La Nina years, when higher ocean temperatures persisted in areas where most seals from the study population at King George Island forage. The authors infer that these conditions lead to improved prey quality and quantity; however, many of the questions and hypotheses they posed have already been addressed elsewhere in the Southern Ocean. We argue that substantial speculation and uncertainty could have been avoided by the authors had they consulted and examined this considerable available literature that confirms (and in some cases, fails to support) many of their conclusions. Such a spatially limited focus in biogeography increases the risk of making important errors of interpretation.