O' Mother Where Wert Thou? Maternal Strategies in the Southern Elephant Seal: a Stable Isotope Investigation

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Main Authors: Authier, Matthieu, Dragon, Anne-Cécile, Richard, Pierre, Cherel, Yves, Guinet, Christophe
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2012
• Subjects: maternal effects; Mirounga leonina; stable isotopes; mixture modelling; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Antarctic; Îles Kerguelen; Kerguelen; Antarc*; Elephant Seal; Elephant Seals; Southern Elephant Seal; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00671325; https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.0199

International audience 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 four years of data, we modelled pup weaning mass as a two-components 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 to 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 explaining the large population decrease observed at that time on îles Kerguelen because of an overall decrease in pup weaning mass, survival and subsequent recruitment.