Variations in behavior and condition of a Southern Ocean top predator in relation to
            <i>in situ</i>
            oceanographic conditions

Biuw, Martin; Boehme, Lars; Guinet, Christophe; Hindell, Mark A.; Costa, Daniel P.; Charrassin, Jean Benoît; Roquet, Fabien; Bailleul, Frédéric; Meredith, Michael P.; Thorpe, Sally; Tremblay, Yann; McDonald, Birgitte I.; Park, Y.-H.; Rintoul, Stephen R.; Bindoff, Nathaniel L.; Goebel, Michael E.; Crocker, Daniel E.; Lovell, Phil; Nicholson, J. Y.; Monks, F.; Fedak, Michael A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.0701121104

Cited by 298 publications

(320 citation statements)

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“…Southern elephant seals are astonishing swimmers and divers [7,8], turning the study of their foraging behaviour into a challenge. Using stable isotopes and a mixture modelling approach, we investigated maternal effects on offspring mass.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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O' mother where wert thou? Maternal strategies in the southern elephant seal: a stable isotope investigation

et al. 2012

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Maternal effects are widespread in ecology and can alter the dynamics of a population. We investigated the impact of maternal foraging strategies on offspring weaning mass-a proxy of maternal foraging success and of offspring survival-in southern elephant seals on îles Kerguelen. Using 4 years of data, we modelled pup weaning mass as a two-component mixture and used blood stable isotope values to discriminate between maternal foraging strategies previously identified from bio-logging studies. Carbon isotope ratio was a strong predictor of weaning mass, but the relationship was non-monotonic in contrast to a priori expectations. Females foraging in the interfrontal zone weaned pups with a smaller mass compared with females foraging in Antarctic waters. Pup mass was positively correlated with a proxy of global primary production in the interfrontal zone for small weanlings. Maternal effects, via a poor foraging efficiency in the 1970s, may help explain the large population decrease observed at that time on îles Kerguelen because of an overall decrease in pup weaning mass, survival and subsequent recruitment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Females only haul-out on land to breed in the early austral spring and to moult in the late summer. The bio-logging revolution has provided invaluable insights into the foraging ecology of these exceptional divers [7,8]. The main drawback of bio-logging studies is its costs: small sample size may weaken inferences [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

O' mother where wert thou? Maternal strategies in the southern elephant seal: a stable isotope investigation

et al. 2012

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“…The extensive movement range and locomotion ability of marine mammals and seabirds enable observations to be obtained in places and scales unresolved by conventional observations. For example, instrumented seals have been providing temperature and salinity profiles in the Antarctic Ocean for more than 10 y, especially under sea ice coverage that was difficult to measure by conventional methods (10,11). Adding these data to ocean circulation models improved the accuracy of estimated mixed layer properties (12).…”

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confidence: 99%

Flight paths of seabirds soaring over the ocean surface enable measurement of fine-scale wind speed and direction

Yonehara

Goto

Yoda

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Ocean surface winds are an essential factor in understanding the physical interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. Surface winds measured by satellite scatterometers and buoys cover most of the global ocean; however, there are still spatial and temporal gaps and finer-scale variations of wind that may be overlooked, particularly in coastal areas. Here, we show that flight paths of soaring seabirds can be used to estimate fine-scale (every 5 min, ∼5 km) ocean surface winds. Fine-scale global positioning system (GPS) positional data revealed that soaring seabirds flew tortuously and ground speed fluctuated presumably due to tail winds and head winds. Taking advantage of the ground speed difference in relation to flight direction, we reliably estimated wind speed and direction experienced by the birds. These birdbased wind velocities were significantly correlated with wind velocities estimated by satellite-borne scatterometers. Furthermore, extensive travel distances and flight duration of the seabirds enabled a wide range of high-resolution wind observations, especially in coastal areas. Our study suggests that seabirds provide a platform from which to measure ocean surface winds, potentially complementing conventional wind measurements by covering spatial and temporal measurement gaps.biologging | dynamic soaring | satellite scatterometer | GPS | meteorology R ecently, remote-sensing systems used to record atmospheric circulation have been developed. Satellite-borne scatterometers estimate ocean surface wind velocities each day covering the majority of the global ocean. These wide-range wind data in combination with refined ocean models are used in numerical weather predictions and describe the oceanographic features more accurately (1-3). Buoys scattered over the ocean also measure fine-time resolution in situ surface winds and are used in validating remote-sensing measurements and are assimilated into model analyses (4, 5). However, because wind data are only acquired twice per day by each satellite and buoys have limited spatial coverage, finer-scale changes of hours to days in local wind conditions could be overlooked. In addition, in coastal areas, where high biological productivity is associated with ocean and atmosphere circulation patterns (6), wind data are lacking due to variations in wind and wave caused by complex topographic effects that satellites have difficulty measuring (5,7,8). Obtaining in situ high-resolution atmospheric and oceanographic data to fill these spatial and temporal observation gaps would deepen our understanding of physical processes relevant to interactions between the atmosphere and ocean, contribute to improved atmospheric and ocean model analyses (7,8), and reveal detailed structure that remains unresolved by using conventional methods (9).The recent development of miniaturized animal-borne data loggers presented a capability to use animals as indicators of environmental variables. The extensive movement range and locomotion ability of marine mammals and seabirds ena...

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“…Research is also ongoing to identify a suitable technique to estimate blubber stores from photographic data, as has been done for pinnipeds [47]. In addition, accelerometry data collected by electronic tags have been used to estimate pinnipeds' body condition and its variation at sea [48,49]. While accelerometer sensors have been successfully combined with suction-cap tags for free-ranging cetaceans [50], future research should aim at improving attachment techniques to allow for longer-term sampling than is currently possible and for more effective remote transmission of the data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting the effects of human developments on individual dolphins to understand potential long-term population consequences

et al. 2015

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Human activities that impact wildlife do not necessarily remove individuals from populations. They may also change individual behaviour in ways that have sublethal effects. This has driven interest in developing analytical tools that predict the population consequences of short-term behavioural responses. In this study, we incorporate empirical information on the ecology of a population of bottlenose dolphins into an individual-based model that predicts how individuals' behavioural dynamics arise from their underlying motivational states, as well as their interaction with boat traffic and dredging activities. We simulate the potential effects of proposed coastal developments on this population and predict that the operational phase may affect animals' motivational states. For such results to be relevant for management, the effects on individuals' vital rates also need to be quantified. We investigate whether the relationship between an individual's exposure and the survival of its calves can be directly estimated using a Bayesian multi-stage model for calf survival. The results suggest that any effect on calf survival is probably small and that a significant relationship could only be detected in large, closely studied populations. Our work can be used to guide management decisions, accelerate the consenting process for coastal and offshore developments and design targeted monitoring.

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Variations in behavior and condition of a Southern Ocean top predator in relation to in situ oceanographic conditions

Cited by 298 publications

References 53 publications

O' mother where wert thou? Maternal strategies in the southern elephant seal: a stable isotope investigation

O' mother where wert thou? Maternal strategies in the southern elephant seal: a stable isotope investigation

Flight paths of seabirds soaring over the ocean surface enable measurement of fine-scale wind speed and direction

Predicting the effects of human developments on individual dolphins to understand potential long-term population consequences

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