ArticlePloS one2025
Audible changes in marine trophic ecology: Baleen whale song tracks foraging conditions in the eastern North Pacific.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Food, fear and physics drive collective behaviour in the ocean's pelagic zone.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Review
- Microbial and small zooplankton communities predict density of baleen whales in the southern California Current Ecosystem.PloS one · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Among tremendous biodiversity within the California Current Ecosystem (CCE) are gigantic mysticetes (baleen whales) that produce structured sequences of sound described as song. From six years of passive acoustic monitoring within the central CCE we measured seasonal and interannual variations in the occurrence of blue (Balaenoptera musculus), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), and humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) whale song. Song detection during 11 months of the year defines its prevalence in this foraging habitat and its potential use in behavioral ecology research. Large interannual changes in song occurrence within and between species motivates examination of causality. Humpback whales uniquely exhibited continuous interannual increases, rising from 34% to 76% of days over six years, and we examine multiple hypotheses to explain this exceptional trend. Potential influences of physical factors on detectability - including masking and acoustic propagation - were not supported by analysis of wind data or modeling of acoustic transmission loss. Potential influences of changes in local population abundance, site fidelity, or migration timing were supported for two of the interannual increases in song detection, based on extensive local photo ID data (17,356 IDs of 2,407 individuals). Potential influences of changes in foraging ecology and efficiency were supported across all years by analyses of the abundance and composition of forage species. Following detrimental food web impacts of a major marine heatwave that peaked during the first year of the study, foraging conditions consistently improved for humpback whales in the context of their exceptional prey-switching capacity. Stable isotope data from humpback and blue whale biopsy samples are consistent with observed interannual variations in the regional abundance and composition of forage species. This study thus indicates that major interannual changes in detection of baleen whale song may reflect underlying variations in forage species availability driven by energetic variations in ecosystem state.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.