At surface behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals from King George Island from expedition JUB2000

• Main Authors: Tosh, Cheryl Ann, Bornemann, Horst, Ramdohr, Sven, Schröder, Michael, Martin, Thomas, Carlini, Alejandro R, Plötz, Joachim, Bester, Marthán Nieuwoudt, Sellmann, Lutz
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2009
• Subjects: Dallmann Laboratory; JUB2000; JUB2000_sel_a_m_01; JUB2000_sel_a_m_02; JUB2000_sel_a_m_03; JUB2000_sel_a_m_04; JUB2000_sel_a_m_05; JUB2000_sel_a_m_06; JUB2000_sel_a_m_07; JUB2000_sel_a_m_08; JUB2000_sel_a_m_09; JUB2000_sel_a_m_10; JUB2000_sel_a_m_11; JUB2000_sel_a_m_13; JUB2000_sel_a_m_14; Marine endotherm; Marine Mammal Tracking; MET; MMT; Southern Ocean - Atlantic Sector; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Weddell Sea; King George Island; Bransfield Strait; Weddell; Filchner Trough; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Elephant Seals; Ice Shelf; Sea ice; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.692856; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.692856

Adult male southern elephant seals instrumented in 2000 on King George Island (n = 13), travelled both to the north (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231580, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231585) and to the east (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231571, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231579, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261708, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261709, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261710, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261711) of the Antarctic Peninsula. Five males (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231571, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231579, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231580, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261710, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231585) remained within 500 km of the island and focusing movements in the Bransfield Strait and around the Antarctic Peninsula. Sea-surface temperatures encountered by these animals showed little variation and they seemed to move about irrespective of sea ice cover, but frequented areas of shallow bathymetry. Three males (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261708, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261709, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.261711) moved as far as 75°S to the east of the peninsula, into the Weddell Sea, with maximum distances of more than 1500 km from King George Island. They travelled into the Weddell Sea along the western continental shelf break until they reached the region of the Filchner Trough outflow. Here the bathymetry consists of canyons and ridges which support the intensive mixing between the warm saline waters of the Weddell Gyre and the very cold outflow waters with Ice Shelf water ingredients at the Antarctic Slope Front. Another five data sets were shorter then 40 days, and excluded from analyses (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231568, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231576, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231572, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.231577, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.264710). A computer animation was developed to visualize the animal movements in relation to the extent and concentration of sea ice (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.509404). The need for re-instrumentation of adult males from King George Island is highlighted to investigate whether males continue to travel to similar areas and to obtain higher resolution data.