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Buss DL, van den Hurk Y, Falahati-Anbaran M, Elliott D, Evans S, Frasier BA, Mulville JA, Rankin LK, Stebergløkken H, Whitridge P, Barrett JH. Archaeological evidence of resource utilisation of the great whales over the past two millennia: A systematic review protocol. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0295604. [PMID: 38096207 PMCID: PMC10721060 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295604] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Accepted: 11/25/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Archaeological faunal remains provide key insights into human societies in the past, alongside information on previous resource utilisation and exploitation of wildlife populations. The great whales (Mysticete and sperm whales) were hunted unsustainably throughout the 16th - 20th centuries (herein defined as the modern period) leading to large population declines and variable recovery patterns among species. Humans have utilised whales as a resource through carcass scavenging for millennia; however, increasing local and regional ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggests that, prior to the modern period, hunting of the great whales was more common than previously thought; impacts of earlier hunting pressures on the population ecology of many whale species remains relatively unknown. Hunting guided by traditional ecological knowledge may have been sustainable and likely originated in societies that also incorporated opportunistic use of stranded individuals. The collation of georeferenced zooarchaeological data of the great whales between the 1st - 20th centuries CE worldwide will provide insight into the timescale and distribution of resource utilisation of the great whales and how this varied within and between societies, and may have changed over time. By comparing regions of known resource utilisation and breeding and feeding grounds of current-day whale populations, this information will subsequently be used to infer regions where whale populations were possibly lost or extirpated prior to detailed historical records. This systematic review protocol also provides a template for archaeologists, ecologists, and historians interested in using faunal remains to infer historical ecology and resource use of wild animal populations. The transparency of our data collection approach provides opportunities for reproducibility and comparability with future datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Danielle L. Buss
- Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU University Museum, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Youri van den Hurk
- Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU University Museum, Trondheim, Norway
| | | | - Deirdre Elliott
- Department of Archaeology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
| | - Sally Evans
- MSDS Marine and MSDS Heritage, Holbrook, United Kingdom
| | | | - Jacqueline A. Mulville
- School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Lisa K. Rankin
- Department of Archaeology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
| | | | - Peter Whitridge
- Department of Archaeology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada
| | - James H. Barrett
- Department of Archaeology and Cultural History, NTNU University Museum, Trondheim, Norway
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Auteri GG. A conceptual framework to integrate cold-survival strategies: torpor, resistance and seasonal migration. Biol Lett 2022; 18:20220050. [PMID: 35506240 PMCID: PMC9065958 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Freezing temperatures are inherently challenging for life, which is water based. How species cope with these conditions fundamentally shapes ecological and evolutionary processes. Despite this, there is no comprehensive conceptual framework for cold-survival strategies-seasonal migration, cold resistance and torpor. Here, I propose a framework with four components for conceptualizing and quantifying cold-survival strategies. Cold-survival strategies are (i) collectively encompassed by the proposed framework, and that this full breadth of strategies should be considered in focal species or systems (comprehensive consideration). These strategies also (ii) exist on a spectrum, such that species can exhibit partial use of strategies, (iii) are non-exclusive, such that some species use multiple strategies concurrently (combined use) and (iv) should collectively vary inversely and proportionally with one another when controlling for the external environment (e.g. when considering species that occur in sympatry in their summer range), such that use of one strategy reduces, collectively, the use of others (proportional use). This framework is relevant to understanding fundamental patterns and processes in evolution, ecology, physiology and conservation biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giorgia G Auteri
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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