Establishing growth chronologies from marine mammal teeth: A method applicable across species

摘要

Multidecadal datasets are important for investigating the effects of a changing climate on top predators, particularly if short-term variations are to be differentiated from long-term trends. Annual increments (growth layer groups: GLGs) formed in the teeth of marine mammals have the potential to provide multidecadal proxy records or chronologies of energy budgets associated with growth, allowing for the investigation of potential environmental drivers of interannual variability and longer-term changes in growth. To date, methodology universally applicable across marine mammal species for developing such chronologies has not been established. Methodologies developed are often "bespoke" being developed specifically for individual species and datasets. This thereby limits the applicability of such methodologies to other species and regions and introduces difficulties in the replication of methods.