Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals
The range of foraging behaviors available to deep-diving, air-breathing marine vertebrates is constrained by their physiological capacity to breath-hold dive. We measured body oxygen stores (blood volume and muscle myoglobin) and diving behavior in adult female northern elephant seals, Mirounga angu...
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Journal of Experimental Biology
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ftcalifstateuniv:oai:scholarworks:qb98mg07c 2024-09-30T14:34:23+00:00 Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals J. L. Hassrick Daniel E. Crocker N. M. Teutschel B. I. McDonald P. W. Robinson S. E. Simmons D. P. Costa 2010-02 http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/118321 English eng Journal of Experimental Biology This research was supported by the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics program with grants from the National Ocean Partnership Program (N00014-02-1-1012), the Office of Naval Research (N00014-00-1-0880, N00014-03-1-0651 and N00014- 08-1-1195), International Association of Oil and Gas Producers contract JIP2207- 23, the Moore, Packard, and Sloan Foundations. J.L.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship. http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/118321 elephant seal oxygen stores age dive duration Article 2010 ftcalifstateuniv 2024-09-10T17:06:15Z The range of foraging behaviors available to deep-diving, air-breathing marine vertebrates is constrained by their physiological capacity to breath-hold dive. We measured body oxygen stores (blood volume and muscle myoglobin) and diving behavior in adult female northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, to investigate age-related effects on diving performance. Blood volume averaged 74.4±17.0liters in female elephant seals or 20.2±2.0% of body mass. Plasma volume averaged 32.2±7.8liters or 8.7±0.7% of body mass. Absolute plasma volume and blood volume increased independently with mass and age. Hematocrit decreased weakly with mass but did not vary with age. Muscle myoglobin concentration, while higher than previously reported (7.4±0.7g%), did not vary with mass or age. Pregnancy status did not influence blood volume. Mean dive duration, a proxy for physiological demand, increased as a function of how long seals had been at sea, followed by mass and hematocrit. Strong effects of female body mass (range, 218–600kg) on dive duration, which were independent of oxygen stores, suggest that larger females had lower diving metabolic rates. A tendency for dives to exceed calculated aerobic limits occurred more frequently later in the at-sea migration. Our data suggest that individual physiological state variables and condition interact to determine breathhold ability and that both should be considered in life-history studies of foraging behavior Published by and copyright of The Company of Biologists. The definitive version of this article is available at: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/213/4/585.full.pdf+html Hassrick, J.L., Crocker, Daniel E., Teutschel, N.M., McDonald, B.I., Robinson, P.W., Simmons, S.E., Costa, D.P. "Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals." Journal of Experimental Biology. (2010): 585-592. 1477-9145 Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Scholarworks from California State University |
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Open Polar |
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Scholarworks from California State University |
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ftcalifstateuniv |
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English |
topic |
elephant seal oxygen stores age dive duration |
spellingShingle |
elephant seal oxygen stores age dive duration J. L. Hassrick Daniel E. Crocker N. M. Teutschel B. I. McDonald P. W. Robinson S. E. Simmons D. P. Costa Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals |
topic_facet |
elephant seal oxygen stores age dive duration |
description |
The range of foraging behaviors available to deep-diving, air-breathing marine vertebrates is constrained by their physiological capacity to breath-hold dive. We measured body oxygen stores (blood volume and muscle myoglobin) and diving behavior in adult female northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, to investigate age-related effects on diving performance. Blood volume averaged 74.4±17.0liters in female elephant seals or 20.2±2.0% of body mass. Plasma volume averaged 32.2±7.8liters or 8.7±0.7% of body mass. Absolute plasma volume and blood volume increased independently with mass and age. Hematocrit decreased weakly with mass but did not vary with age. Muscle myoglobin concentration, while higher than previously reported (7.4±0.7g%), did not vary with mass or age. Pregnancy status did not influence blood volume. Mean dive duration, a proxy for physiological demand, increased as a function of how long seals had been at sea, followed by mass and hematocrit. Strong effects of female body mass (range, 218–600kg) on dive duration, which were independent of oxygen stores, suggest that larger females had lower diving metabolic rates. A tendency for dives to exceed calculated aerobic limits occurred more frequently later in the at-sea migration. Our data suggest that individual physiological state variables and condition interact to determine breathhold ability and that both should be considered in life-history studies of foraging behavior Published by and copyright of The Company of Biologists. The definitive version of this article is available at: http://jeb.biologists.org/content/213/4/585.full.pdf+html Hassrick, J.L., Crocker, Daniel E., Teutschel, N.M., McDonald, B.I., Robinson, P.W., Simmons, S.E., Costa, D.P. "Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals." Journal of Experimental Biology. (2010): 585-592. 1477-9145 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
J. L. Hassrick Daniel E. Crocker N. M. Teutschel B. I. McDonald P. W. Robinson S. E. Simmons D. P. Costa |
author_facet |
J. L. Hassrick Daniel E. Crocker N. M. Teutschel B. I. McDonald P. W. Robinson S. E. Simmons D. P. Costa |
author_sort |
J. L. Hassrick |
title |
Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals |
title_short |
Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals |
title_full |
Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals |
title_fullStr |
Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Condition and Mass Impact Oxygen Stores and Dive Duration in Adult Female Northern Elephant Seals |
title_sort |
condition and mass impact oxygen stores and dive duration in adult female northern elephant seals |
publisher |
Journal of Experimental Biology |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/118321 |
genre |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/118321 |
_version_ |
1811638017906966528 |