Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula
Detailed knowledge of habitat use by marine megafauna is critical to understand their ecological roles and for the adequate management of marine resources. Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) inhabiting the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean prey largely on Antarctic krill (Euphausia supe...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8593074 2023-05-15T13:59:55+02:00 Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula March, David Drago, Massimiliano Gazo, Manel Parga, Mariluz Rita, Diego Cardona, Luis 2021-11-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593074/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34782702 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01700-w en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593074/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34782702 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01700-w © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . CC-BY Sci Rep Article Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01700-w 2021-11-21T01:43:53Z Detailed knowledge of habitat use by marine megafauna is critical to understand their ecological roles and for the adequate management of marine resources. Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) inhabiting the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean prey largely on Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and play a central role in managing the krill fishery. Here, we assessed the demographic structure of three post-mating, early moult male haul-outs in the South Shetland Islands in early March and calculated the relative contribution of juveniles (1–4 years old) and sub-adult males (5–6 years) to the population remaining in maritime Antarctica after the breeding season. We also satellite tagged 11 juvenile males and four sub-adult males to analyze their movements and develop a species distribution model including both age classes. Our results highlighted the dominance of young individuals in the male population, revealed that they do not behave as central place foragers and identified key environmental drivers that affected their distribution at-sea throughout winter. Predicted potential foraging habitat overlapped highly with the known distribution of Antarctic krill, and identified the waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula and the Scotia Sea as the core of the distribution area of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals in winter. This pattern is similar to that of adult males but totally different from that of adult females, as the latter overwinter in areas at latitude 45–55° S. This segregation has implications for the ecology and management of the krill fishery. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seals Antarctic Krill Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Arctocephalus gazella Euphausia superba Scotia Sea South Shetland Islands Southern Ocean PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Scotia Sea South Shetland Islands Southern Ocean Scientific Reports 11 1 |
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Article March, David Drago, Massimiliano Gazo, Manel Parga, Mariluz Rita, Diego Cardona, Luis Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
Detailed knowledge of habitat use by marine megafauna is critical to understand their ecological roles and for the adequate management of marine resources. Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) inhabiting the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean prey largely on Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) and play a central role in managing the krill fishery. Here, we assessed the demographic structure of three post-mating, early moult male haul-outs in the South Shetland Islands in early March and calculated the relative contribution of juveniles (1–4 years old) and sub-adult males (5–6 years) to the population remaining in maritime Antarctica after the breeding season. We also satellite tagged 11 juvenile males and four sub-adult males to analyze their movements and develop a species distribution model including both age classes. Our results highlighted the dominance of young individuals in the male population, revealed that they do not behave as central place foragers and identified key environmental drivers that affected their distribution at-sea throughout winter. Predicted potential foraging habitat overlapped highly with the known distribution of Antarctic krill, and identified the waters off the western Antarctic Peninsula and the Scotia Sea as the core of the distribution area of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals in winter. This pattern is similar to that of adult males but totally different from that of adult females, as the latter overwinter in areas at latitude 45–55° S. This segregation has implications for the ecology and management of the krill fishery. |
format |
Text |
author |
March, David Drago, Massimiliano Gazo, Manel Parga, Mariluz Rita, Diego Cardona, Luis |
author_facet |
March, David Drago, Massimiliano Gazo, Manel Parga, Mariluz Rita, Diego Cardona, Luis |
author_sort |
March, David |
title |
Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula |
title_short |
Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full |
Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula |
title_fullStr |
Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula |
title_full_unstemmed |
Winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) along the western Antarctic Peninsula |
title_sort |
winter distribution of juvenile and sub-adult male antarctic fur seals (arctocephalus gazella) along the western antarctic peninsula |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593074/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34782702 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01700-w |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Scotia Sea South Shetland Islands Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Scotia Sea South Shetland Islands Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seals Antarctic Krill Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Arctocephalus gazella Euphausia superba Scotia Sea South Shetland Islands Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Fur Seals Antarctic Krill Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Arctocephalus gazella Euphausia superba Scotia Sea South Shetland Islands Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Sci Rep |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593074/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34782702 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01700-w |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01700-w |
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Scientific Reports |
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11 |
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1766268845337608192 |