From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea
peer reviewed The average temperature of the North Sea has risen twice as fast as the oceans of the world with already detectable consequences to the ecosystem. The North Sea is a critical habitat to different marine mammal species including the grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, the harbour seal Phoca...
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ftorbi:oai:orbi.ulg.ac.be:2268/295421 2024-04-21T08:04:13+00:00 From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea Das, Krishna Damseaux, France Pomeroy, Patrick Jauniaux, Thierry Pinzone, Marianna Lepoint, Gilles Gilles, Anita Siebert, Ursula FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège 2022-08-05 https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/295421 en eng https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/295421 info:hdl:2268/295421 restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess 24th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, West Palm Beach, United States [US], 1-5 Août 2022 marine mammals North Sea Stable isotopes mercury selenium Life sciences Aquatic sciences & oceanology Sciences du vivant Sciences aquatiques & océanologie conference paper not in proceedings http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_18cp info:eu-repo/semantics/conferencePaper peer reviewed 2022 ftorbi 2024-03-27T14:58:04Z peer reviewed The average temperature of the North Sea has risen twice as fast as the oceans of the world with already detectable consequences to the ecosystem. The North Sea is a critical habitat to different marine mammal species including the grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, the harbour seal Phoca vitulina, and the harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena. Long-term approach of their feeding ecology is crucially needed to understand their response in term of global changes and management of their population. A multi-tracer approach (THg and Se; 13C, 15N, 34S values) was applied on harbour seals and grey seals (blood; German and Scottish coasts, n=174 and n=80, respectively) during different time periods (from 1900 to 2017). Additionally, the same tracers were analysed in harbour seals (hair; from 1930 to 2017) from the Natural History Museum of Stockholm (n =10), free-ranging and stranded harbour seals from the North Sea (German and Belgian coasts, n=40 and n=6, respectively). Data acquired previously on harbour porpoises from the southern part of the North Sea were integrated (muscle; 1994-2018, n=188). Our multi-tracer approach revealed: (1) an increase of trophic niche size and foraging distribution (from inshore to offshore), an increase of foraging resource items (more flatfish and less sandeels) for Scottish grey seals over time; (2) long-term changes having affected the North Sea are reflected in hair collected from harbour seals. We found a linear concomitant increase of THg and 13C values, reflecting a higher exposure combined to a more intense use of wind farm locations for foraging activities. Wind farms areas are particular ecosystems with an abundant marine life and different isotopic values. To conclude, our results showed a high degree of plasticity in foraging resources for harbour seals and in foraging spatial distribution for grey seals. More research is needed to infer on impacts of wind farms, also in relation to disturbance. 14. Life below water Conference Object Harbour porpoise harbour seal Phoca vitulina Phocoena phocoena University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Liège: ORBi (Open Repository and Bibliography) |
op_collection_id |
ftorbi |
language |
English |
topic |
marine mammals North Sea Stable isotopes mercury selenium Life sciences Aquatic sciences & oceanology Sciences du vivant Sciences aquatiques & océanologie |
spellingShingle |
marine mammals North Sea Stable isotopes mercury selenium Life sciences Aquatic sciences & oceanology Sciences du vivant Sciences aquatiques & océanologie Das, Krishna Damseaux, France Pomeroy, Patrick Jauniaux, Thierry Pinzone, Marianna Lepoint, Gilles Gilles, Anita Siebert, Ursula From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea |
topic_facet |
marine mammals North Sea Stable isotopes mercury selenium Life sciences Aquatic sciences & oceanology Sciences du vivant Sciences aquatiques & océanologie |
description |
peer reviewed The average temperature of the North Sea has risen twice as fast as the oceans of the world with already detectable consequences to the ecosystem. The North Sea is a critical habitat to different marine mammal species including the grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, the harbour seal Phoca vitulina, and the harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena. Long-term approach of their feeding ecology is crucially needed to understand their response in term of global changes and management of their population. A multi-tracer approach (THg and Se; 13C, 15N, 34S values) was applied on harbour seals and grey seals (blood; German and Scottish coasts, n=174 and n=80, respectively) during different time periods (from 1900 to 2017). Additionally, the same tracers were analysed in harbour seals (hair; from 1930 to 2017) from the Natural History Museum of Stockholm (n =10), free-ranging and stranded harbour seals from the North Sea (German and Belgian coasts, n=40 and n=6, respectively). Data acquired previously on harbour porpoises from the southern part of the North Sea were integrated (muscle; 1994-2018, n=188). Our multi-tracer approach revealed: (1) an increase of trophic niche size and foraging distribution (from inshore to offshore), an increase of foraging resource items (more flatfish and less sandeels) for Scottish grey seals over time; (2) long-term changes having affected the North Sea are reflected in hair collected from harbour seals. We found a linear concomitant increase of THg and 13C values, reflecting a higher exposure combined to a more intense use of wind farm locations for foraging activities. Wind farms areas are particular ecosystems with an abundant marine life and different isotopic values. To conclude, our results showed a high degree of plasticity in foraging resources for harbour seals and in foraging spatial distribution for grey seals. More research is needed to infer on impacts of wind farms, also in relation to disturbance. 14. Life below water |
author2 |
FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Das, Krishna Damseaux, France Pomeroy, Patrick Jauniaux, Thierry Pinzone, Marianna Lepoint, Gilles Gilles, Anita Siebert, Ursula |
author_facet |
Das, Krishna Damseaux, France Pomeroy, Patrick Jauniaux, Thierry Pinzone, Marianna Lepoint, Gilles Gilles, Anita Siebert, Ursula |
author_sort |
Das, Krishna |
title |
From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea |
title_short |
From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea |
title_full |
From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea |
title_fullStr |
From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
From museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the North Sea |
title_sort |
from museum to field and necropsy sampling: a long history of seals and porpoises in the north sea |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/295421 |
genre |
Harbour porpoise harbour seal Phoca vitulina Phocoena phocoena |
genre_facet |
Harbour porpoise harbour seal Phoca vitulina Phocoena phocoena |
op_source |
24th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, West Palm Beach, United States [US], 1-5 Août 2022 |
op_relation |
https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/295421 info:hdl:2268/295421 |
op_rights |
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
_version_ |
1796943856559718400 |