Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas"
Antarctic polynyas are persistent open water areas which enable early and large seasonal phytoplankton blooms. This high primary productivity, boosted by iron supply from coastal glaciers, attracts organisms from all trophic levels to form a rich and diverse community. How the ecological benefit of...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
The Royal Society
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Elephant_seal_foraging_success_is_enhanced_in_Antarctic_coastal_polynyas_/5758763/1 |
id |
ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 2023-05-15T13:36:45+02:00 Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Rob Bestley, Sophie 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Elephant_seal_foraging_success_is_enhanced_in_Antarctic_coastal_polynyas_/5758763/1 unknown The Royal Society https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Ecology FOS Biological sciences 60801 Animal Behaviour article Collection 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 2022-02-09T12:09:38Z Antarctic polynyas are persistent open water areas which enable early and large seasonal phytoplankton blooms. This high primary productivity, boosted by iron supply from coastal glaciers, attracts organisms from all trophic levels to form a rich and diverse community. How the ecological benefit of polynya productivity is translated to the highest trophic levels remains poorly resolved. We studied 119 southern elephant seals feeding over the Antarctic shelf and demonstrated that (i) 96% of seals foraging here used polynyas, with individuals spending on average 62% of their time there, (ii) the seals exhibited more area-restricted search behaviour when in polynyas and (iii) these seals gained more energy (indicated by increased buoyancy from greater fat stores) when inside polynyas. This higher quality foraging existed even when ice was not present in the study area, indicating that these are important and predictable foraging grounds year-round. Despite these energetic advantages from using polynyas, not all the seals used them extensively. Factors other than food supply may influence an individual's choice in their use of feeding grounds, such as exposure to predation or the probability of being able to return to distant sub-Antarctic breeding sites. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Antarctic The Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Ecology FOS Biological sciences 60801 Animal Behaviour |
spellingShingle |
Ecology FOS Biological sciences 60801 Animal Behaviour Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Rob Bestley, Sophie Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" |
topic_facet |
Ecology FOS Biological sciences 60801 Animal Behaviour |
description |
Antarctic polynyas are persistent open water areas which enable early and large seasonal phytoplankton blooms. This high primary productivity, boosted by iron supply from coastal glaciers, attracts organisms from all trophic levels to form a rich and diverse community. How the ecological benefit of polynya productivity is translated to the highest trophic levels remains poorly resolved. We studied 119 southern elephant seals feeding over the Antarctic shelf and demonstrated that (i) 96% of seals foraging here used polynyas, with individuals spending on average 62% of their time there, (ii) the seals exhibited more area-restricted search behaviour when in polynyas and (iii) these seals gained more energy (indicated by increased buoyancy from greater fat stores) when inside polynyas. This higher quality foraging existed even when ice was not present in the study area, indicating that these are important and predictable foraging grounds year-round. Despite these energetic advantages from using polynyas, not all the seals used them extensively. Factors other than food supply may influence an individual's choice in their use of feeding grounds, such as exposure to predation or the probability of being able to return to distant sub-Antarctic breeding sites. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Rob Bestley, Sophie |
author_facet |
Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Rob Bestley, Sophie |
author_sort |
Arce, Fernando |
title |
Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" |
title_short |
Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" |
title_full |
Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" |
title_fullStr |
Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" |
title_full_unstemmed |
Supplementary material from "Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas" |
title_sort |
supplementary material from "elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in antarctic coastal polynyas" |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Elephant_seal_foraging_success_is_enhanced_in_Antarctic_coastal_polynyas_/5758763/1 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5758763.v1 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 |
_version_ |
1766083519527780352 |