RT Dissertation/Thesis
T1 Diet analysis of the main cetacean’s species in waters of the North-West Iberian Peninsula and analysis of macro and microplastics in their stomachs
T2 Análise da dieta das principais especies de cetáceos en augas do Noroeste da Península Ibérica e análise de macro e microplásticos nos seus estómagos
A1 Hernández González, Alberto
K1 2401.06 Ecología Animal
K1 3109.06 Nutrición
K1 2401.19 Zoología Marina
AB Cetaceans, as top predators, play an important role in the functioning of marine ecosystems, regulating the abundance of species at lower trophic levels in the marine food chain. Diet studies based on the analysis of the stomach contents of these mammals allow the quantification of the diet, the estimation of the amount of food consumed annually by these predators and the investigation of  their food preferences. In the Atlantic region of the Iberian Peninsula the most abundant marine mammal species, representative of the higher trophic levels are: the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), the striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba), the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and the long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas). The diet of these species varies both spatial and temporal at different scales and also in relation to the age of the individual and to the sex (e.g. Santos et al., 2007; 2013). In the Atlantic side of the Iberian Peninsula, not only piscivorous species have a big influence on the marine ecosystem, but also those species that feed on cephalopods although very little is known on their  diet. The overexploitation of the marine environment can affect the survival and conservation status of these top predators and, in addition, another significant threat to which cetaceans are subject is to the pollution, and especially to the marine debris. Analysis of the stomach contents of these species will allow us to analyse the most important species of prey for the distinct species of cetaceans (in terms of numerical importance and biomass) in order to be able to characterize the dietary habits and the composition of the diets of cetaceans that live in Galician waters. Besides, it will be able to infer the interannual and seasonal variation of the diet, as well as the variation of the diet in relation with the sex and the size of cetaceans. On the other hand it will contrast the diets of the stranded animals with those that were captured accidentally and will compare all the data obtained (diet and pollution) between the stomach contents stored in alcohol and the whole frozen stomachs. Regarding the pollution data, the presence of macro and microplastics found in the stomachs of the different species of cetaceans through the years of study will be analysed and quantified. In addition, will investigated their variation in relation to the sex, the species, the size of the cetaceans and the geographical area where the bodies of the cetaceans analysed in this work appeared.
LK http://hdl.handle.net/11093/4782
UL http://hdl.handle.net/11093/4782
LA eng
DS Investigo
RD 28-nov-2023