Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-02T13:06:02.861Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fatty acid characterization of lipid fractions from blubber biopsies of sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus located around the Azores

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2008

M.J. Walton ,
M.A. Silva ,
S.M. Magalhães ,
R. Prieto  and
R.S. Santos
M.J. Walton*
Affiliation:
Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 8LB, Scotland, UK
M.A. Silva
Affiliation:
Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 8LB, Scotland, UK Departamento de Oceanografia e Pesca, Universidade dos Açores, 9901-862 Horta, Açores, Portugal
S.M. Magalhães
Affiliation:
Departamento de Oceanografia e Pesca, Universidade dos Açores, 9901-862 Horta, Açores, Portugal
R. Prieto
Affiliation:
Departamento de Oceanografia e Pesca, Universidade dos Açores, 9901-862 Horta, Açores, Portugal
R.S. Santos
Affiliation:
Departamento de Oceanografia e Pesca, Universidade dos Açores, 9901-862 Horta, Açores, Portugal
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: M.J. Walton, Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 8LB, Scotland, UK email: mjw6@st.andrews.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fatty acid profiles of blubber have been shown previously to provide information on stock structure and sex differences. Generally the predominant blubber lipid of marine mammal species is triacylglycerol (fatty acids linked to glycerol) and previous studies have focused on this lipid class. But in some species such as the sperm whales the predominant lipid is wax esters (fatty acids linked to fatty alcohols) although triacylglycerols are also present. In this study the fatty acids and fatty alcohols of these lipid classes were characterized and the fatty acid profiles compared in order to assess their potential to provide qualitative ecological data.

Biopsy samples were obtained from 40 whales found in seas around the Azores achipelago during the period 2002–2003. The samples contained about 10% lipid of which 70% was wax ester and 11% triacylglycerol. The fatty acids of the triacylglycerols and wax esters were respectively approximately 19% and 16% saturated, 74% and 80% monounsaturated and 5% and 3% polyunsaturated with the main contributors being 18:1n-9, 16:1n-7 and 16:0. The alcohols of the wax esters were mainly either saturated or monounsaturated with the main contributors being 18:1n-9 (40%) and 16:0 (22%). No statistically significant differences in profiles were found between different island groups, between sexes or between years of sampling. In future studies there would not appear to be any apparent benefits over total lipid in examining each of the fatty acid classes of sperm whale blubber separately.

Keywords

fatty acidsblubbersperm whaleAzoreswax esterstriacylglycerol
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 88 , Special Issue 6: Marine Mammals , September 2008 , pp. 1109 - 1115
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ackman, R.G., Epstein, S. and Eaton, C.A. (1971) Differences in the fatty acid composition of blubber fats from NW Atlantic fin whales and harp seals. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 40B, 683–697.Google Scholar
Beck, C.A., Iverson, S.J., Bowen, W.D. and Blanchard, W. (2007) Sex differences in grey seal diet reflect seasonal variation in foraging behaviour and reproductive expenditure: evidence from quantitative fatty acid signature analysis. Journal of Animal Ecology 76, 490–502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beynon, A.C., Hermus, R.J. and Hautvast, J.G. (1980) A mathematical relationship between the fatty acid composition of the diet and that of the adipose in man. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 33, 81–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borrell, A., Aguilar, A., Tornero, V., Sequeira, M., Fernandez, G. and Alis, S. (2006) Organochlorine compounds and stable isotopes indicate bottlenose dolphin subpopulation structure around the Iberian Peninsula. Environment International 32, 516–523.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Budge, S.M. and Iverson, S.J. (2003) Quantitative analysis of fatty acid precursors in marine samples: direct conversion of wax ester alcohols and dimethyl acetals to FAMEs. Journal of Lipid Research 44, 1802–1807.Google Scholar
Budge, S.M., Iverson, S.J., Bowen, W.D. and Ackman, R.G. (2002) Among and within species variability in fatty acid signatures of marine fish and invertebrates on the Scotian Shelf, Georges Bank and southern Gulf of St Lawrence. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 59, 886–898.Google Scholar
Chou, L., Bright, A.M. and Yeh, S. (1995) Stomach content of whales from North Pacific Ocean. Zoological Studies 34, 206–210.Google Scholar
Christie, W.W. (1989). Gas chromatography and lipids. Dundee: The Oily Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, M.R., Martins, H.R. and Pascoe, P. (1993) The diet of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) off the Azores. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 339, 67–82.Google Scholar
Cockcroft, V.G. (1994) Biopsy sampling from free-ranging bottlenose dolphins. In Notarbartolo di Sciara, G. et al. (eds) Methods for the study of bottlenose dolphins in the wild. European Cetacean Society Newsletter 23 (Special Issue), pp. 32–33.Google Scholar
Drout, V. (2003) Ecology of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in the Mediterranean Sea. PhD thesis, University of Wales, Bangor, Wales.Google Scholar
Engelhaupt, D.T. (2004) Phylogeography, kinship and molecular ecology of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus). University of Durham.Google Scholar
Excoffier, L., Smouse, P.E. and Quattro, J.M. (1992) Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes: application to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data. Genetics 131, 479–491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folch, J., Lees, M. and Sloane-Stanley, G.H. (1957) A simple method for the isolation and purification of total lipids from animal tissues. Journal of Biological Chemistry 226, 497–503.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grahl-Nielsen, O., Andersen, A., Derocher, A.E., Lydersen, C., Wiig, O. and Kovacs, K.M. (2004) Reply to Comment on Grahl-Nielsen et al. (2003) Sampling, data treatment and predictions in investigations on fatty acids in marine mammals. Marine Ecology Progress Series 281, 303–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grahl-Nielson, O., Mjaavatten, O. and Tvedt, E. (1993) Distinguishing between different populations of harp seal by chemometry of the fatty acid profiles in the jaw bone. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 50, 1400–1404.Google Scholar
Hansen, I.A. and Cheah, C.C. (1969) Related dietary and tissue lipids of the sperm whale. Comparative Biochemistry Physiology 31, 757–761.Google Scholar
Henderson, R.J. and Tocher, D.R. (1992) Thin-layer chromatography. In Hanilton, R.J. and Hamilton, S. (eds) Lipid analysis; a practical approach. Oxford, UK: IRL Press, pp. 65–112.Google Scholar
Henderson, R.J., Kalogeropoulos, N. and Alexis, M.N. (1994) The lipid composition of selected tissues from a Mediterranean monk seal. Lipids 29, 577–582.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herman, D.P., Burrows, D.G., Wade, P.R., Durban, J.W., Matkin, C.O., Le Duc, R.G., Barrett-Lennard, L.G. and Krahn, M.M. (2005) Feeding ecology of eastern North Pacific killer whales Orcinus orca from fatty acid, stable isotope and organochlorine analyses of blubber biopsies. Marine Ecology Progress Series 302, 275–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooker, S.K., Iverson, S.J., Ostrom, P. and Smith, S.C. (2001) Diet of northern bottlenose whales inferred from fatty-acid and stable-isotope analyses of biopsy samples. Canadian Journal of Zoology 79, 1442–1454.Google Scholar
Iverson, S.J., Frost, K.J. and Lowry, L.F. (1997a) Fatty acid signatures reveal fine scale structure of foraging distribution of harbour seals and their prey in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Marine Ecology Progress Series 151, 255–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iverson, S.J., Arnould, J.P.Y. and Boyd, I.L. (1997b) Milk fatty acid signatures indicate both major and minor shifts in the diet of lactating Antarctic seals. Canadian Journal of Zoology 75, 188–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iverson, S.J., Field, C.J., Bowen, W.D. and Blanchard, W. (2004) Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis: a new method of estimating predator diets. Ecological Monographs 74, 211–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, C.H. (1991) Body composition of the sperm whale with special reference to the possible function of fat deposits. Journal of the Marine Research Institute Rejkjavik 12, 1–24.Google Scholar
Lyrholm, T., Leimar, O., Johanneson, B. and Gyllensten, U. (1999) Sex biased dispersal in sperm whales: contrasting mitochondrial and nuclear genetic structure of global populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 266, 347–354.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Magalhães, A.M., Silva, M.A., Prieto, R., Quérouil, S., Pinela, A. and Santos, R.S. (2005) Spatial and temporal patterns of sperm whale groups in the Azores archipelago. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society. La Rochelle, France, p. 117.Google Scholar
Møller, P., Born, E.W., Dietz, R., Haug, T., Ruzzante, D.E. and Øien, N. (2003) Regional differences in fatty acid composition in common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) from the North Atlantic. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 5, 115–124.Google Scholar
Olsen, E. and Grahl-Nielsen, O. (2003) Blubber fatty acids of minke whales: stratification, population identification and relation to diet. Marine Biology 142, 13–24.Google Scholar
Palumbi, S., Martin, A., Kessing, B. and McMillan, M. (1991) Detecting population structure using mitochondrial DNA. In Hoelzel, A. (ed.) Genetic ecology of whales and dolphins. International Whaling Commission Special Issue 13, Cambridge, UK, pp. 271–278.Google Scholar
Pinela, A., Quérouil, S., Magalhães, S., Silva, M.A., Prieto, R., Matos, J.A. and Santos, R.S. (2005) Population genetics and social organization of the sperm whale in the Azorean archipelago. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society. La Rochelle, France, p. 90.Google Scholar
Samuel, A.M. and Worthy, G.A.J. (2004) Variability in fatty acid composition of bottlenose dolphin blubber as a function of body site, season and reproductive state. Canadian Journal of Zoology 82, 1933–1942.Google Scholar
Seabra, M.I., Silva, M.A., Magalhães, S., Prieto, R., August, P., Vigness-Raposa, K., Lafon, V. and Santos, R.S. (2005) Distribution and habitat preferences of bottlenose dolphins and sperm whales with respect to physiographic and oceanographic factors in the waters around the Azores. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society. La Rochelle, France, p. 105.Google Scholar
Shane, S.H., Wells, R.S. and Wursig, B. (1986) Ecology, behavior and social organization of the sperm whale: a review. Marine Mammal Science 2, 34–63.Google Scholar
Smith, H.R. and Worthy, G.A.J. (2006) Stratification and intra- and inter- specific differences in fatty acid composition of common dolphin Delphinus sp. blubber: implications for dietary analysis. Comparative Biochemistry Physiology 143B, 486–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storr-Hansen, E. and Spliid, H. (1993) Coplanar PCB congener levels and patterns and the identification of separate populations of harbour seals in Denmark. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 24, 44–58.Google Scholar
Strawford, A., Antelo, F., Christiansen, M. and Hellerstein, M.K. (2004) Adipose tissue triglyceride turnover de novo and cell proliferation in humans measured with 2H2O. American Journal of Physiology 286, E577–588.Google Scholar
Thiemann, G.W., Budge, S.M., Bowen, W.D. and Iverson, S.J. (2004) Comment on Grahl-Nielsen et al. (2003) Fatty acid composition of the adipose tissue of polar bears and of their prey: ringed seals, bearded seals and harp seals. Marine Ecology Progress Series 281, 297–301.Google Scholar
Tollit, D.J. and Thompson, P.M. (1996) Seasonal and between-year variations in the diet of harbour seals in the Moray Firth, Scotland. Canadian Journal of Zoology 74, 1110–1121.Google Scholar
Walton, M.J., Henderson, R.J. and Pomeroy, P.P. (2000) Use of blubber fatty acid profiles to distinguish dietary differences between grey seals from two UK breeding colonies. Marine Ecology Progress Series 193, 201–208.Google Scholar
Walton, M.J. and Pomeroy, P.P. (2003) The use of blubber fatty acid profiles to detect inter-annual variations in the diet of grey seals from 2 breeding colonies. Marine Ecology Progress Series 248, 257–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, S. (1978) cited in Hartl D.L. (1987) A primer of population genetics. Sunderland, USA: Sinauer.Google Scholar
Young, D.D. and Cockcroft, V.G. (1994) Diet of common whales (Delphinus delphis) off the south-east coast of southern Africa: opportunism or specialization? Journal of Zoology 234, 41–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar