Hydrographic data from Atka Bay taken by Weddell seals during expedition NEU2008 with links to datasets, supplement to: McIntyre, Trevor; Stansfield, Lauren J; Bornemann, Horst; Plötz, Joachim; Bester, Marthán Nieuwoudt (2013): Hydrographic influences on the summer dive behaviour of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) in Atka Bay, Antarctica. Polar Biology, 36(11), 1693-1700

In order to gain insights into species-level behavioural responses to the physical environment, it is necessary to obtain information from various populations and at all times of year. We analysed the influences of physical environmental parameters on the mid-summer dive behaviour of Weddell seals (...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: McIntyre, Trevor, Stansfield, Lauren J, Bornemann, Horst, Plötz, Joachim, Bester, Marthán Nieuwoudt
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science 2013
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Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.818467
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.818467
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Summary:In order to gain insights into species-level behavioural responses to the physical environment, it is necessary to obtain information from various populations and at all times of year. We analysed the influences of physical environmental parameters on the mid-summer dive behaviour of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) from a little-known population at Atka Bay, Antarctica. Dive depth distributions followed a typical bimodal pattern also exhibited by seals from other populations and seals targeted both shallow water layers of <50 m and depths near the seafloor. Increased stratification of temperature layers within the water column resulted in increased forage efforts by the seals through relatively high numbers of dives to the seafloor, as well as forage effort associated with shallow dives. We interpret these behavioural responses to be due to increased water temperature stratification resulting in the concentration of prey species in particular depth layers.