An integrative approach to understanding how body size affects physiology, ecology, and conservation
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Body size can be a strong predictor of morphological traits, physiological performance, ecological function, and even anthropogenic impacts. Variation in body size creates many different challenges and opportunities for organisms that arise from scaling relationships. Rorqual whales are the largest of all animals and thus represent a unique study system to understand how animals function at the extreme of body size. Rorquals exist sympatrically, have the same foraging mechanism, and hunt similar prey. The major difference between rorqual species is their range of body sizes that spans an order of magnitude. Using CATS tags, which record rorqual kinematics and behavior in nature, I can ask questions about how physiological and ecological functions scale with body size, using the best-suited organism. In this dissertation, I determine the allometric relationships of rorqual morphological traits (Chapter 1) and use these relationships along with biologging data to determine that morphology predicts the behavior and performance of rorquals in their natural environment (Chapter 2). I apply the results of the morphology and performance studies to a conservation issue, microplastic pollution, to a generate a high-resolution quantitative estimate of potential plastic ingestion by baleen whales (Chapter 3). Finally, I integrated the results from Chapters 1 and 2 to determine that rorqual stomach content data is driven by morphological variations that affect maneuverability and speed across rorquals. Finally, my conclusion describes how integrating the major themes in my dissertation provided me with insights to how body size affects physiology, ecology, and conservation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2021; ©2021 |
| Publication date | 2021; 2021 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Kahane-Rapport, Shirel Rachel |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Goldbogen, Jeremy |
| Thesis advisor | Goldbogen, Jeremy |
| Thesis advisor | Denny, Mark W, 1951- |
| Thesis advisor | Hazen, Elliott Lee |
| Thesis advisor | Thompson, Stuart |
| Degree committee member | Denny, Mark W, 1951- |
| Degree committee member | Hazen, Elliott Lee |
| Degree committee member | Thompson, Stuart |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Biology |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Shirel Rachel Kahane-Rapport. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Biology. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2021. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/gg952qb9429 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2021 by Shirel Rachel Kahane-Rapport
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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