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...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
The Royal Society
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8790345/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078353 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8790345 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8790345 2023-05-15T13:44:25+02:00 Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon J. Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Robert G. Bestley, Sophie 2022-01-26 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8790345/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078353 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8790345/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078353 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 © 2022 The Author(s) https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdfhttps://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Proc Biol Sci Ecology Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 2023-01-29T01:31:14Z 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. Text Antarc* Antarctic Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Southern Elephant Seals PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic The Antarctic Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 1967 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Ecology |
spellingShingle |
Ecology Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon J. Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Robert G. Bestley, Sophie Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas |
topic_facet |
Ecology |
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 |
Text |
author |
Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon J. Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Robert G. Bestley, Sophie |
author_facet |
Arce, Fernando Hindell, Mark A. McMahon, Clive R. Wotherspoon, Simon J. Guinet, Christophe Harcourt, Robert G. Bestley, Sophie |
author_sort |
Arce, Fernando |
title |
Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas |
title_short |
Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas |
title_full |
Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas |
title_fullStr |
Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas |
title_full_unstemmed |
Elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in Antarctic coastal polynyas |
title_sort |
elephant seal foraging success is enhanced in antarctic coastal polynyas |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8790345/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078353 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 |
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_source |
Proc Biol Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8790345/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35078353 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 |
op_rights |
© 2022 The Author(s) https://royalsociety.org/-/media/journals/author/Licence-to-Publish-20062019-final.pdfhttps://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2452 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
289 |
container_issue |
1967 |
_version_ |
1766201393879711744 |