Determining the movement of marine animals is logistically difficult and is currently primarily based on VHF and satellite-tracking telemetry, GPS, acoustic telemetry, and geolocation, all of which have substantial limitations in accurately locating the fine-scale movements of these animals. A recent development-that of dead-reckoning-is being increasingly used to examine the fine-scale movement of animals underwater. The advantages and drawbacks of this approach are quite different to those incurred by the other methods. This paper considers the advances that deadreckoning can bring to the study of the often cryptic movement and behaviour of marine animals at sea. Methods used in determining position via dead-reckoning are presented and consideration is given to results derived from the use of deadreckoning on cetaceans, pinnipeds, penguins and sea turtles; these are complemented by data on cormorants and albatrosses acquired using GPS systems. Suggestions are made as to how movement data derived from these devices can be analysed using indices that allow interpretation over a large variety of temporal and spatial scales. r
Abstract. Movements of animals provisioning offspring by central place foraging extend from short, highly local trips where food is brought back essentially unchanged from its normal condition to extensive interseasonal movement where the offspring are nourished from body reserves built up during the adult's absence from the breeding site. Here, appropriate strategies for maximizing lifetime reproductive success depend on the abundance and location of prey in relation to breeding sites and the energetics and speed of travel of the animal. Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus undertake central place movements that are particularly variable during the incubation period; trips may last from a single day to over three weeks depending on colony locality. We reasoned that site-specific variability in prey distribution and abundance is responsible for this. Remote-sensing systems attached to 92 penguins from six different colonies over the species distributional range over the Patagonian Shelf were used to determine space use and foraging patterns in an attempt to understand the observed patterns. Birds in the north and south of the latitudinal range were essentially monophagic, feeding primarily on anchovies Engraulis anchoita and sprats Sprattus fuegensis, respectively, both species that are to be found relatively close to the colonies. Penguins in the center of the distributional range, where these pelagic school fish prey are essentially absent at that time of the year, traveled either north or south, to the same regions utilized by their conspecifics, presumably to exploit the same prey. A simple model is used to clarify patterns and can be used to predict which movement strategy is likely to be best according to colony location. During chick rearing, southerly movement of anchovies and northerly movement of sprats mean that Magellanic Penguins in the center of the distributional range may benefit, although the abundance of these fish is considered to be less than that closer to the Magellanic Penguin range limits. The extensive time involved in the foraging trips during incubation coupled with the postulated poorer prey conditions during the chick-rearing phase may help explain why Magellanic Penguin colony sizes in the center of the range are not elevated.
The Wadden Sea along the North Sea coasts of Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world. Its habitats are highly productive and harbour high standing stocks and densities of benthic species, well adapted to the demanding environmental conditions. Therefore, the Wadden Sea is one of the most important areas for migratory birds in the world and thus protected by national and international legislation, which amongst others requires extensive monitoring. Due to the inaccessibility of major areas of the Wadden Sea, a classification approach based on optical and radar remote sensing has been developed to support environmental monitoring programmes. In this study, the general classification framework as well as two specific monitoring cases, mussel beds and seagrass meadows, are presented. The classification of mussel beds profits highly from inclusion of radar data due to their rough surface and achieves agreements of up to 79 % with areal data from the regular monitoring programme. Classification of seagrass meadows reaches even higher agreements with monitoring data (up to 100 %) and furthermore captures seagrass densities as low as 10 %. The main classification results are information on area and location of individual habitats. These are needed to fulfil environmental legislation requirements. One of the major advantages of this approach is the large areal coverage with individual satellite images, allowing simultaneous assessment of both accessible and inaccessible areas and thus providing a more complete overall picture.
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