Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation
Dramatic population declines among species of pelagic shark as a result of overfishing have been reported, with some species now at a fraction of their historical biomass. Advanced telemetry techniques enable tracking of spatial dynamics and behaviour, providing fundamental information on habitat pr...
Published in: | PLoS ONE |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2012
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/1/fetchObject.action_uri%253Dinfo_doi%25252F10.1371%25252Fjournal.pone.0032374%2526representation%253DPDF |
id |
ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:347753 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:347753 2023-07-30T04:05:42+02:00 Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation Queiroz, Nuno Humphries, Nicolas E. Noble, Leslie R. Santos, António M. Sims, David W. 2012 application/octet-stream https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/1/fetchObject.action_uri%253Dinfo_doi%25252F10.1371%25252Fjournal.pone.0032374%2526representation%253DPDF en eng https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/1/fetchObject.action_uri%253Dinfo_doi%25252F10.1371%25252Fjournal.pone.0032374%2526representation%253DPDF Queiroz, Nuno, Humphries, Nicolas E., Noble, Leslie R., Santos, António M. and Sims, David W. (2012) Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation. PLoS ONE, 7 (2), e32374. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032374 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032374>). other Article PeerReviewed 2012 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032374 2023-07-09T21:43:54Z Dramatic population declines among species of pelagic shark as a result of overfishing have been reported, with some species now at a fraction of their historical biomass. Advanced telemetry techniques enable tracking of spatial dynamics and behaviour, providing fundamental information on habitat preferences of threatened species to aid conservation. We tracked movements of the highest pelagic fisheries by-catch species, the blue shark Prionace glauca, in the North-east Atlantic using pop-off satellite-linked archival tags to determine the degree of space use linked to habitat and to examine vertical niche. Overall, blue sharks moved south-west of tagging sites (English Channel; southern Portugal), exhibiting pronounced site fidelity correlated with localized productive frontal areas, with estimated space-use patterns being significantly different from that of random walks. Tracked female sharks displayed behavioural variability in diel depth preferences, both within and between individuals. Diel depth use ranged from normal DVM (nDVM; dawn descent, dusk ascent), to reverse DVM (rDVM; dawn ascent, dusk descent), to behavioural patterns where no diel differences were apparent. Results showed that blue sharks occupy some of the most productive marine zones for extended periods and structure diel activity patterns across multiple spatio-temporal scales in response to particular habitat types. In so doing, sharks occupied an extraordinarily broad vertical depth range for their size (1.0–2.0 m fork length), from the surface into the bathypelagic realm (max. dive depth, 1160 m). The space-use patterns of blue sharks indicated they spend much of the time in areas where pelagic longlining activities are often highest, and in depth zones where these fisheries particularly target other species, which could account for the rapid declines recently reported for blue sharks in many parts of the world's oceans. Our results provide habitat targets for blue shark conservation that may also be relevant to other pelagic species. Article in Journal/Newspaper North East Atlantic University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton PLoS ONE 7 2 e32374 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
op_collection_id |
ftsouthampton |
language |
English |
description |
Dramatic population declines among species of pelagic shark as a result of overfishing have been reported, with some species now at a fraction of their historical biomass. Advanced telemetry techniques enable tracking of spatial dynamics and behaviour, providing fundamental information on habitat preferences of threatened species to aid conservation. We tracked movements of the highest pelagic fisheries by-catch species, the blue shark Prionace glauca, in the North-east Atlantic using pop-off satellite-linked archival tags to determine the degree of space use linked to habitat and to examine vertical niche. Overall, blue sharks moved south-west of tagging sites (English Channel; southern Portugal), exhibiting pronounced site fidelity correlated with localized productive frontal areas, with estimated space-use patterns being significantly different from that of random walks. Tracked female sharks displayed behavioural variability in diel depth preferences, both within and between individuals. Diel depth use ranged from normal DVM (nDVM; dawn descent, dusk ascent), to reverse DVM (rDVM; dawn ascent, dusk descent), to behavioural patterns where no diel differences were apparent. Results showed that blue sharks occupy some of the most productive marine zones for extended periods and structure diel activity patterns across multiple spatio-temporal scales in response to particular habitat types. In so doing, sharks occupied an extraordinarily broad vertical depth range for their size (1.0–2.0 m fork length), from the surface into the bathypelagic realm (max. dive depth, 1160 m). The space-use patterns of blue sharks indicated they spend much of the time in areas where pelagic longlining activities are often highest, and in depth zones where these fisheries particularly target other species, which could account for the rapid declines recently reported for blue sharks in many parts of the world's oceans. Our results provide habitat targets for blue shark conservation that may also be relevant to other pelagic species. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Queiroz, Nuno Humphries, Nicolas E. Noble, Leslie R. Santos, António M. Sims, David W. |
spellingShingle |
Queiroz, Nuno Humphries, Nicolas E. Noble, Leslie R. Santos, António M. Sims, David W. Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
author_facet |
Queiroz, Nuno Humphries, Nicolas E. Noble, Leslie R. Santos, António M. Sims, David W. |
author_sort |
Queiroz, Nuno |
title |
Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
title_short |
Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
title_full |
Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
title_fullStr |
Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
title_sort |
spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/ https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/1/fetchObject.action_uri%253Dinfo_doi%25252F10.1371%25252Fjournal.pone.0032374%2526representation%253DPDF |
genre |
North East Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North East Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/347753/1/fetchObject.action_uri%253Dinfo_doi%25252F10.1371%25252Fjournal.pone.0032374%2526representation%253DPDF Queiroz, Nuno, Humphries, Nicolas E., Noble, Leslie R., Santos, António M. and Sims, David W. (2012) Spatial dynamics and expanded vertical niche of blue sharks in oceanographic fronts reveal habitat targets for conservation. PLoS ONE, 7 (2), e32374. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032374 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032374>). |
op_rights |
other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032374 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
e32374 |
_version_ |
1772817803770855424 |