State Of The Arctic Marine Biodiversity Report Update: Marine Mammals
Loading...
Issue Date
2021-05
Authors
Kovacs, K.M.
Belikov, S
Boveng, P
Desportes, G
Ferguson, S
Hansen, R
Laidre, K
Stenson, G
Thomas, P
Ugarte, F
Subject
Abstract
Marine mammals are highly visible components of Arctic ecosystems that are important to the structure and function of these systems (Estes et al. 2016, Albouy et al. 2020). In addition, they are valuable resources for people living in the Arctic that also play a special role in the cultural identity of people in the North. Arctic marine mammals are all endemic to the Arctic region and hence a unique part of global biodiversity for which the Arctic range states have important stewardship responsibilities. In an ecosystem monitoring context, these large, mobile predators can serve as ecosystem sentinels, because they integrate changes at more cryptic levels of food webs, making them ideal monitoring subjects that have “added value” (Bossart 2006, Moore 2008, Sergio et al. 2008, Hays et al. 2019, Hazen et al. 2019, Stenson et al. 2020a).