Growth in marine mammals: a review of growth patterns, composition and energy investment

Abstract Growth of structural mass and energy reserves influences individual survival, reproductive success, population species life history. Metrics growth storage individuals are often used to assess health potential, which can inform conservation. However, the energetic costs tissue deposition for stores their prioritization within bioenergetic budgets poorly documented. This is particularly true across marine mammal as resources accumulated at sea, limiting ability measure allocation prioritization. We reviewed literature on summarize patterns, explore compositions, depositing these tissues tradeoffs associated with growth. Generally, mammals exhibit logarithmic means that related high early postnatal animals, but small compared total budget animals get older. patterns also change in response resource availability, habitat other demands, such they serve an indicator health. Composition remained consistent respect protein water content species; however, there was a degree variability lipid both muscle (0.1–74.3%) blubber (0.4–97.9%) due use lipids storage. found relatively few well-studied dominate literature, leaving data gaps entire taxa, beaked whales. The purpose this review identify gaps, future research priorities improve our understanding how grow costs.