| 1. |
- Hindell, Mark A., et al.
(författare)
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Circumpolar habitat use in the southern elephant seal : implications for foraging success and population trajectories
- 2016
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Ingår i: Ecosphere. - : Wiley. - 2150-8925 .- 2150-8925. ; 7:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the Southern Ocean, wide-ranging predators offer the opportunity to quantify how animals respond to differences in the environment because their behavior and population trends are an integrated signal of prevailing conditions within multiple marine habitats. Southern elephant seals in particular, can provide useful insights due to their circumpolar distribution, their long and distant migrations and their performance of extended bouts of deep diving. Furthermore, across their range, elephant seal populations have very different population trends. In this study, we present a data set from the International Polar Year project; Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole for southern elephant seals, in which a large number of instruments (N = 287) deployed on animals, encompassing a broad circum-Antarctic geographic extent, collected in situ ocean data and at-sea foraging metrics that explicitly link foraging behavior and habitat structure in time and space. Broadly speaking, the seals foraged in two habitats, the relatively shallow waters of the Antarctic continental shelf and the Kerguelen Plateau and deep open water regions. Animals of both sexes were more likely to exhibit area-restricted search (ARS) behavior rather than transit in shelf habitats. While Antarctic shelf waters can be regarded as prime habitat for both sexes, female seals tend to move northwards with the advance of sea ice in the late autumn or early winter. The water masses used by the seals also influenced their behavioral mode, with female ARS behavior being most likely in modified Circumpolar Deepwater or northerly Modified Shelf Water, both of which tend to be associated with the outer reaches of the Antarctic Continental Shelf. The combined effects of (1) the differing habitat quality, (2) differing responses to encroaching ice as the winter progresses among colonies, (3) differing distances between breeding and haul-out sites and high quality habitats, and (4) differing long-term -regional trends in sea ice extent can explain the differing population trends observed among elephant seal colonies.
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| 2. |
- Roquet, Fabien, et al.
(författare)
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Estimates of the Southern Ocean general circulation improved by animal-borne instruments
- 2013
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Ingår i: Geophysical Research Letters. - 0094-8276 .- 1944-8007. ; 40:23, s. 6176-6180
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over the last decade, several hundred seals have been equipped with conductivity-temperature-depth sensors in the Southern Ocean for both biological and physical oceanographic studies. A calibrated collection of seal-derived hydrographic data is now available, consisting of more than 165,000 profiles. The value of these hydrographic data within the existing Southern Ocean observing system is demonstrated herein by conducting two state estimation experiments, differing only in the use or not of seal data to constrain the system. Including seal-derived data substantially modifies the estimated surface mixed-layer properties and circulation patterns within and south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Agreement with independent satellite observations of sea ice concentration is improved, especially along the East Antarctic shelf. Instrumented animals efficiently reduce a critical observational gap, and their contribution to monitoring polar climate variability will continue to grow as data accuracy and spatial coverage increase.
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| 3. |
- Treasure, Anne M., et al.
(författare)
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Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole A Review of the MEOP Consortium
- 2017
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Ingår i: Oceanography. - : The Oceanography Society. - 1042-8275. ; 30:2, s. 132-138
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Polar oceans are poorly monitored despite the important role they play in regulating Earth's climate system. Marine mammals equipped with biologging devices are now being used to fill the data gaps in these logistically difficult to sample regions. Since 2002, instrumented animals have been generating exceptionally large data sets of oceanographic CTD casts (>500,000 profiles), which are now freely available to the scientific community through the MEOP data portal (http://meop.net). MEOP (Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole) is a consortium of international researchers dedicated to sharing animal-derived data and knowledge about the polar oceans. Collectively, MEOP demonstrates the power and cost-effectiveness of using marine mammals as data-collection platforms that can dramatically improve the ocean observing system for biological and physical oceanographers. Here, we review the MEOP program and database to bring it to the attention of the international community.
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