README: Conservation energetics of beluga whales: Rates of energy consumption during submerged swimming in beluga whales

https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gf1vhhmwr

We measured the resting and active metabolic rates of one young adult male and two young adult female beluga whales housed at the Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta, GA). Trials were conducted in temperature-controlled, saltwater pools with a maximum depth of 7.3 m for beluga whales. Animals swam a measured 34-meter loop circuit to the maximum depth of the pool. Oxygen consumption was measured via open-flow respirometry and converted to energy with values reported in J·kg-1·min-1 using a conversion factor of 20.1 J per ml O2. Speed was determined from video recordings and observers who timed each trial. Acceleration was measured for two beluga whales using a submersible tri-axial accelerometer tag that was recorded at 20 Hz and converted to g (1 g = 9.81 m/s^2).

Description of the data and file structure

This file represents the original data used in Figure 4 of the associated Journal of Experimental Biology paper by J. John et al. (2024). The data were used to determine the allometric relationships between energy expenditure and swimming stroke frequency, swimming speed, and partial dynamic acceleration. The data is organized in columns according to the animal subject (identified by name), date of measurement, and numerical values for the four parameters investigated. A table on the page also identifies the animal name with the corresponding beluga number in the manuscript. Note that blanks in column PDBA(x,y) correspond to missing data from one whale that was not wearing an accelerometer during the studies.

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