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Seasonal Distribution of Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins at an Estuarine Habitat: Influences of Upstream Rainfall

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Abstract

River estuaries are dynamic regions that are influenced by the interactions between freshwater and seawater as well as seasonal variations in river runoffs. Studies focusing on the distribution of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) have indicated their general tendency toward estuarine habitats. The seasonal activities of humpback dolphins are likely to synchronize with environmental fluctuations. This study investigated the effects of seasonal changes in river runoffs on the distribution gradient of humpback dolphins by deploying acoustic data loggers along the Xin Huwei River estuary, Western Taiwan, between July 2009 and September 2012. Seasonal shifts were observed in the areas with high detected duration of humpback dolphins, which mainly stayed near the river mouth during the dry seasons but moved seaward during rainy seasons and following heavy rainfall. In addition, the gradient of ambient ultrasonic pulses, dominated by snapping shrimp sounds, exhibited regional differences following heavy rainfall. The outward movements of the humpback dolphins and the snapping shrimp sounds in the estuary indicated a temporary trophic-system shift in response to local environmental changes resulting from high volumes of river runoffs. In the future, the seasonal variation in the distribution of humpback dolphins must be considered during the conservation management of this critically endangered population.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Formosa Plastics Group, Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture Executive Yuan of Taiwan (100-FD-07.1-C-37), Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST 103-3113-E-002-013-), and Research and Development Program for New Bio-industry Initiatives of Japan. We thank the Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory at National Cheng Kung University and the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan for allowing us to access the fixed pile at the Xin Huwei River estuary. We appreciate Li-Cing Mei, Long-Jhen Lin, Siou-Syong Wu, and the members of the Cetacean Laboratory, National Taiwan University for their dedicated support in conducting the field surveys of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins off the west coast of Taiwan. We also thank Shiang-Lin Huang for improving the quality of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Tzu-Hao Lin & Lien-Siang Chou

  2. National Research Institute of Fisheries Engineering, Fisheries Research Agency, 7620-7 Hasaki, Kamisu, Ibaraki, 314-0408, Japan

    Tomonari Akamatsu

  3. Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST, Sanbancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 102-0075, Japan

    Tomonari Akamatsu

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  1. Tzu-Hao Lin
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Correspondence to Lien-Siang Chou.

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Communicated by Iris C. Anderson

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Lin, TH., Akamatsu, T. & Chou, LS. Seasonal Distribution of Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins at an Estuarine Habitat: Influences of Upstream Rainfall. Estuaries and Coasts 38, 1376–1384 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9886-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9886-2

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