Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are important predators in the Southern Ocean and are among the best-studied pinnipeds on Earth, yet much still needs to be learned about their year-round movements and foraging behaviour. Using biologgers, we tagged 62 post-moult Weddell seals in McMurdo Soun...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9874274 2023-05-15T17:10:36+02:00 Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea Goetz, Kimberly T. Dinniman, Michael S. Hückstädt, Luis A. Robinson, Patrick W. Shero, Michelle R. Burns, Jennifer M. Hofmann, Eileen E. Stammerjohn, Sharon E. Hazen, Elliott L. Ainley, David G. Costa, Daniel P. 2023-01-25 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9874274/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220500 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9874274/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220500 © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY R Soc Open Sci Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220500 2023-01-29T02:22:06Z Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are important predators in the Southern Ocean and are among the best-studied pinnipeds on Earth, yet much still needs to be learned about their year-round movements and foraging behaviour. Using biologgers, we tagged 62 post-moult Weddell seals in McMurdo Sound and vicinity between 2010 and 2012. Generalized additive mixed models were used to (i) explain and predict the probability of seal presence and foraging behaviour from eight environmental variables, and (ii) examine foraging behaviour in relation to dive metrics. Foraging probability was highest in winter and lowest in summer, and foraging occurred mostly in the water column or just above the bottom; across all seasons, seals preferentially exploited the shallow banks and deeper troughs of the Ross Sea, the latter providing a pathway for Circumpolar Deep Water to flow onto the shelf. In addition, the probability of Weddell seal occurrence and foraging increased with increasing bathymetric slope and where water depth was typically less than 600 m. Although the probability of occurrence was higher closer to the shelf break, foraging was higher in areas closer to shore and over banks. This study highlights the importance of overwinter foraging for recouping body mass lost during the previous summer. Text McMurdo Sound Ross Sea Southern Ocean Weddell Seal Weddell Seals PubMed Central (PMC) McMurdo Sound Ross Sea Southern Ocean Weddell Royal Society Open Science 10 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Organismal and Evolutionary Biology |
spellingShingle |
Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Goetz, Kimberly T. Dinniman, Michael S. Hückstädt, Luis A. Robinson, Patrick W. Shero, Michelle R. Burns, Jennifer M. Hofmann, Eileen E. Stammerjohn, Sharon E. Hazen, Elliott L. Ainley, David G. Costa, Daniel P. Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea |
topic_facet |
Organismal and Evolutionary Biology |
description |
Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) are important predators in the Southern Ocean and are among the best-studied pinnipeds on Earth, yet much still needs to be learned about their year-round movements and foraging behaviour. Using biologgers, we tagged 62 post-moult Weddell seals in McMurdo Sound and vicinity between 2010 and 2012. Generalized additive mixed models were used to (i) explain and predict the probability of seal presence and foraging behaviour from eight environmental variables, and (ii) examine foraging behaviour in relation to dive metrics. Foraging probability was highest in winter and lowest in summer, and foraging occurred mostly in the water column or just above the bottom; across all seasons, seals preferentially exploited the shallow banks and deeper troughs of the Ross Sea, the latter providing a pathway for Circumpolar Deep Water to flow onto the shelf. In addition, the probability of Weddell seal occurrence and foraging increased with increasing bathymetric slope and where water depth was typically less than 600 m. Although the probability of occurrence was higher closer to the shelf break, foraging was higher in areas closer to shore and over banks. This study highlights the importance of overwinter foraging for recouping body mass lost during the previous summer. |
format |
Text |
author |
Goetz, Kimberly T. Dinniman, Michael S. Hückstädt, Luis A. Robinson, Patrick W. Shero, Michelle R. Burns, Jennifer M. Hofmann, Eileen E. Stammerjohn, Sharon E. Hazen, Elliott L. Ainley, David G. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_facet |
Goetz, Kimberly T. Dinniman, Michael S. Hückstädt, Luis A. Robinson, Patrick W. Shero, Michelle R. Burns, Jennifer M. Hofmann, Eileen E. Stammerjohn, Sharon E. Hazen, Elliott L. Ainley, David G. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_sort |
Goetz, Kimberly T. |
title |
Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea |
title_short |
Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea |
title_full |
Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea |
title_fullStr |
Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
Seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult Weddell seals in the western Ross Sea |
title_sort |
seasonal habitat preference and foraging behaviour of post-moult weddell seals in the western ross sea |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9874274/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220500 |
geographic |
McMurdo Sound Ross Sea Southern Ocean Weddell |
geographic_facet |
McMurdo Sound Ross Sea Southern Ocean Weddell |
genre |
McMurdo Sound Ross Sea Southern Ocean Weddell Seal Weddell Seals |
genre_facet |
McMurdo Sound Ross Sea Southern Ocean Weddell Seal Weddell Seals |
op_source |
R Soc Open Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9874274/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220500 |
op_rights |
© 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220500 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
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