Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal
International audience Physical processes, such as mesoscale eddies, play an important role in ocean mixing and concentrating biological productivity, which provides great feeding opportunities for many marine top predators. This study describes the presumed foraging behaviour of southern elephant s...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08560 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00528567 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:10670/1.5a353x 2023-05-15T16:05:19+02:00 Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal Bailleul, Frédéric Cotté, Cédric Guinet, Christophe Centre d'études biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2010-10-22 https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08560 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00528567 en eng HAL CCSD Inter Research hal-00528567 doi:10.3354/meps08560 10670/1.5a353x https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00528567 undefined Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société ISSN: 0171-8630 EISSN: 1616-1599 Marine Ecology Progress Series Marine Ecology Progress Series, Inter Research, 2010, 408, pp.251-264. ⟨10.3354/meps08560⟩ envir geo Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2010 fttriple https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08560 2023-01-22T18:22:46Z International audience Physical processes, such as mesoscale eddies, play an important role in ocean mixing and concentrating biological productivity, which provides great feeding opportunities for many marine top predators. This study describes the presumed foraging behaviour of southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina within an intense eddy field along the Polar Front in relation to the physical features of the eddies targeted by foraging seals, especially in the vertical dimension. Combining satellite measurements and data from tags deployed on elephant seals, we showed that some seals (10 of 38) preferentially selected the edge of cyclonic structures, generally associated with a high eddy kinetic energy, during intensive foraging phases. Moreover, we observed that elephant seals dived deeper within cyclonic eddies compared with anti-cyclonic structures. The behaviour of seals well illustrates the function of the spin-up of cyclonic eddies, where the upwelling of nutrients occurs at the centre, and high productivity and high concentration of prey occur at the edge. Productivity, aggregation of resources and accessibility of prey associated with cyclonic eddies probably act together to determine the selection of these structures by foraging elephant seals. However, eddies are not the only favourable foraging habitat within the Polar Frontal Zone, and the identification of oceanographic conditions associated with these other foraging zones requires further work. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seal Southern Elephant Seals Unknown Marine Ecology Progress Series 408 251 264 |
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English |
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envir geo Bailleul, Frédéric Cotté, Cédric Guinet, Christophe Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
topic_facet |
envir geo |
description |
International audience Physical processes, such as mesoscale eddies, play an important role in ocean mixing and concentrating biological productivity, which provides great feeding opportunities for many marine top predators. This study describes the presumed foraging behaviour of southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina within an intense eddy field along the Polar Front in relation to the physical features of the eddies targeted by foraging seals, especially in the vertical dimension. Combining satellite measurements and data from tags deployed on elephant seals, we showed that some seals (10 of 38) preferentially selected the edge of cyclonic structures, generally associated with a high eddy kinetic energy, during intensive foraging phases. Moreover, we observed that elephant seals dived deeper within cyclonic eddies compared with anti-cyclonic structures. The behaviour of seals well illustrates the function of the spin-up of cyclonic eddies, where the upwelling of nutrients occurs at the centre, and high productivity and high concentration of prey occur at the edge. Productivity, aggregation of resources and accessibility of prey associated with cyclonic eddies probably act together to determine the selection of these structures by foraging elephant seals. However, eddies are not the only favourable foraging habitat within the Polar Frontal Zone, and the identification of oceanographic conditions associated with these other foraging zones requires further work. |
author2 |
Centre d'études biologiques de Chizé (CEBC) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bailleul, Frédéric Cotté, Cédric Guinet, Christophe |
author_facet |
Bailleul, Frédéric Cotté, Cédric Guinet, Christophe |
author_sort |
Bailleul, Frédéric |
title |
Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
title_short |
Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
title_full |
Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
title_fullStr |
Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
title_sort |
mesoscale eddies as foraging area of a deep-diving predator, the southern elephant seal |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08560 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00528567 |
genre |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seal Southern Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seal Southern Elephant Seals |
op_source |
Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société ISSN: 0171-8630 EISSN: 1616-1599 Marine Ecology Progress Series Marine Ecology Progress Series, Inter Research, 2010, 408, pp.251-264. ⟨10.3354/meps08560⟩ |
op_relation |
hal-00528567 doi:10.3354/meps08560 10670/1.5a353x https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00528567 |
op_rights |
undefined |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08560 |
container_title |
Marine Ecology Progress Series |
container_volume |
408 |
container_start_page |
251 |
op_container_end_page |
264 |
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1766401215991644160 |