Correspondence

• Main Authors: Maria E. I. Márquez, Marthán N. Bester
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: foraging ecology; satellite-relay data loggers; King George; 25 de Mayo; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Bellingshausen Sea; isla 25 de Mayo; King George Island; Scotia Sea; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Elephant Seals; Isla 25 de Mayo; Mirounga leonina; Sea ice; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.680.8099; http://www.polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/download/23808/pdf_1/

Understanding the distribution and foraging ecology of major consumers within pelagic systems, specifically in relation to physical parameters, can be important for the management of bentho-pelagic systems undergoing rapid change associated with global climate change and other anthropogenic disturbances such as fishing (i.e., the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea). We tracked 11 adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina), during their five-month post-moult foraging migrations from King George Island (Isla 25 de Mayo), northern Antarctic Peninsula, using tags capable of recording and transmitting behavioural data and in situ temperature and salinity data. Seals foraged mostly within the WeddellScotia Confluence, while a few foraged along the western Antarctic Peninsula shelf of the Bellingshausen Sea. Mixed model outputs suggest that the at-sea behaviour of seals was associated with a number of environmental parameters, especially seafloor depth, sea-ice concentrations and the temperature structure of the water column. Seals increased dive bottom