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The blue whale is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 m (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 t, it is the largest animal known ever to have existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can be of various shades of greyish-blue on its upper surface and somewhat lighter underneath. Four subspecies are recognized: B. m. musculus in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia in the Southern Ocean, B. m. brevicauda in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, and B. m. indica in the Northern Indian Ocean. There is a population in the waters off Chile that may constitute a fifth subspecies.
Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.
An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native species that become harmful to their native environment after human alterations to its food web. Since the 20th century, invasive species have become serious economic, social, and environmental threats worldwide.
Sarah Hrdy is an American anthropologist and primatologist who has made major contributions to evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. She is considered "a highly recognized pioneer in modernizing our understanding of the evolutionary basis of female behavior in both nonhuman and human primates". In 2013, Hrdy received a Lifetime Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.
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Kogiidae is a family comprising at least two extant species of Cetacea, the pygmy and dwarf sperm whales. As their common names suggest, they somewhat resemble sperm whales, with squared heads and small lower jaws, but are much smaller, with much shorter skulls and more notable dorsal fins than sperm whales. Kogiids are also characterized by a "false gill slit" behind their eyes.
In population genetics, gene flow is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent allele frequencies and therefore can be considered a single effective population. It has been shown that it takes only "one migrant per generation" to prevent populations from diverging due to drift. Populations can diverge due to selection even when they are exchanging alleles, if the selection pressure is strong enough. Gene flow is an important mechanism for transferring genetic diversity among populations. Migrants change the distribution of genetic diversity among populations, by modifying allele frequencies. High rates of gene flow can reduce the genetic differentiation between the two groups, increasing homogeneity. For this reason, gene flow has been thought to constrain speciation and prevent range expansion by combining the gene pools of the groups, thus preventing the development of differences in genetic variation that would have led to differentiation and adaptation. In some cases dispersal resulting in gene flow may also result in the addition of novel genetic variants under positive selection to the gene pool of a species or population
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biology emerged through what Julian Huxley called the modern synthesis of understanding, from previously unrelated fields of biological research, such as genetics and ecology, systematics, and paleontology.
Ecosystem diversity deals with the variations in ecosystems within a geographical location and its overall impact on human existence and the environment.
Genetic equilibrium is the condition of an allele or genotype in a gene pool where the frequency does not change from generation to generation. Genetic equilibrium describes a theoretical state that is the basis for determining whether and in what ways populations may deviate from it. Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium is one theoretical framework for studying genetic equilibrium. It is commonly studied using models that take as their assumptions those of Hardy-Weinberg, meaning:
John Charles Avise is an American evolutionary geneticist, conservationist, natural historian, and prolific science author. He is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolution, University of California, Irvine, and was previously a Distinguished Professor of Genetics at the University of Georgia.
In ecology, species homogeneity is a lack of biodiversity. Species richness is the fundamental unit in which to assess the homogeneity of an environment. Therefore, any reduction in species richness, especially endemic species, could be argued as advocating the production of a homogeneous environment.
Whale feces, the excrement of whales, has a vital role in the ecology of oceans, earning whales the title of "marine ecosystem engineers." This significant ecological role stems from the nutrients and compounds found in whale feces, which have far-reaching effects on marine life.
Scott P. Carroll is an American evolutionary biologist and ecologist affiliated with the University of California, Davis and the University of Queensland. Carroll's main interests are in exploring contemporary evolution to better understand adaptive processes and how those processes can be harnessed to develop solutions to evolutionary challenges in food production, medical care and environmental conservation. With Charles W. Fox, Carroll edited Conservation Biology: Evolution in Action, a book published by Oxford University Press in 2008 in which contributors, across the field of evolutionary biology and conservation, apply evolutionary thinking to concepts and practices in conservation biology, an area of research sometimes called evolutionary ecology. Carroll is founding director of the Institute for Contemporary Evolution.
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Stephen R. Palumbi is the Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences at Stanford University at Hopkins Marine Station. He also holds a Senior Fellowship at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
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Chelsea Marina Rochman is an American marine and freshwater ecologist whose research focuses on anthropogenic stressors in freshwater and marine ecosystems. Since September 2016, Rochman has been an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a scientific advisor to the Ocean Conservancy.
Sharlene E. Santana is a Venezuelan–American biologist, currently serving as the Curator of Mammals at the Burke Museum of Natural History and as a professor of Evolutionary biology at the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington. Her research primarily focuses on the order Chiroptera (bats), and her work often engages with a diverse range of biological disciplines, including evolution, systematics, biomechanics, behavioral studies, and ecology. Santana has worked to expand opportunities for underrepresented minorities in STEM fields and has relied on innovative applications of technology to increase the amount of high-quality scientific information that is available to the general public.
References
- 1 2 Roman, Joe (2006). Whale. Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781861895059.
- 1 2 Roman, Joe (2011). Listed: Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674061279.
- 1 2 Roman, Joe; Palumbi, Stephen R. (2003). "Whales before whaling in the North Atlantic" (PDF). Science . 301 (5632): 508–510. Bibcode:2003Sci...301..508R. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.1025.5800 . doi:10.1126/science.1084524. PMID 12881568. S2CID 22656335.
- ↑ Roman, Joe; McCarthy, James J. (2010). "The Whale Pump: Marine Mammals Enhance Primary Productivity in a Coastal Basin". PLoS ONE . 5 (10): e13255. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...513255R. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013255 . PMC 2952594 . PMID 20949007.
- ↑ Roman, Joe; Darling, John A. (2007). "Paradox Lost: Genetic Diversity and the Success of Aquatic Invasions". Trends in Ecology and Evolution . 22 (9): 454–464. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2007.07.002. PMID 17673331.
- ↑ Mishan, Ligaya, “When Invasive Species Become the Meal,” New York Times, October 2, 2020.
- 1 2 3 "Joe Roman – Fellow". Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, The University of Vermont. 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
- ↑ "Harvard University library record: Notes to accompany Sun drift". Harvard University Library. 1985. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
- 1 2 "Harvard University library record: Tracking anthropogenic change in the North Atlantic Ocean with genetic tools". Harvard University Library. 2003. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
- ↑ Pongsiri, Montira J.; Roman, Joe; Ezenwa, Vanessa O.; Goldberg, Tony L.; Koren, Hillel S.; Newbold, Stephen C.; Ostfeld, Richard S.; Pattanayak, Subhrendu K.; Salkeld, Daniel J. (2009). "Biodiversity loss affects global disease ecology" (PDF). BioScience . 59 (11): 945–954. doi: 10.1525/bio.2009.59.11.6 .
- ↑ "Joe Roman Awarded 2014-2015 Hrdy Visiting Fellowship". oeb.harvard.edu (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology). Harvard University. July 29, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
- ↑ "The Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Visiting Fellowship in Conservation Biology at Harvard University". oeb.harvard.edu (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology). Harvard University. 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
- ↑ Roman, Joe (2023). Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World. Little, Brown Spark. ISBN 9781805221692.
- ↑ "Winners: SEJ 11th Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment". Society of Environmental Journalists . October 17, 2012. Archived from the original on August 24, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
