Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway
Harbour seals Phoca vitulina are mainly considered a temperate species, but the world’s northernmost population resides year-round in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In this study we document post-moulting at-sea movements of 30 individuals from this population using satellite relay data lo...
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7898 https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00580 |
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ftunivtroemsoe:oai:munin.uit.no:10037/7898 2023-05-15T14:28:46+02:00 Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway Blanchet, Marie-Anne Ermeline Lydersen, Christian Ims, Rolf Anker Lowther, Andrew D. Kovacs, Kit 2014-09-03 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7898 https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00580 eng eng Inter-Research (IR) Aquatic Biology 21(2014) nr. 3 s. 167-181 FRIDAID 1189849 doi:10.3354/ab00580 1864-7790 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7898 URN:NBN:no-uit_munin_7466 openAccess Climate change Sea ice Habitat use Time spent in area Cox proportional hazard models Satellite telemetry VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Marinbiologi: 497 VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Marine biology: 497 Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed 2014 ftunivtroemsoe https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00580 2021-06-25T17:54:15Z Harbour seals Phoca vitulina are mainly considered a temperate species, but the world’s northernmost population resides year-round in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In this study we document post-moulting at-sea movements of 30 individuals from this population using satellite relay data loggers deployed in the autumns of 2009 and 2010. All of the seals showed a strong preference for the west side of the archipelago, staying mainly in coastal areas (<50 km over the continental shelf), but seldom entering the fjord systems. Distance swam per day, individual home range size, and trip duration increased throughout the winter to a peak that was reached when drifting sea ice in the region was at a maximum. No effect of age was observed, but sex differences were significant; males occupied larger areas than females. Habitat selection was quantified by modelling time spent in area (TSA) as a function of environmental parameters using Cox proportional hazard models (CPH). The harbour seals avoided heavy ice concentrations (>50%) but did occupy areas with substantial amounts of drifting ice (5 to 25%). Shallow water (<100 m) and steep bathymetric slopes were preferred to deep water or flat-bottom areas. Harbour seal distribution in Svalbard is largely restricted to coastal areas that are heavily influenced by Atlantic water brought northward in the West Spitsbergen Current; both the temperature and influx of this water type are predicted to increase in the future. It is thus likely that environmental conditions in Svalbard in the future will become more favourable for harbour seals. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Climate change harbour seal Phoca vitulina Sea ice Svalbard Spitsbergen University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive Arctic Norway Svalbard Aquatic Biology 21 3 167 181 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Tromsø: Munin Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtroemsoe |
language |
English |
topic |
Climate change Sea ice Habitat use Time spent in area Cox proportional hazard models Satellite telemetry VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Marinbiologi: 497 VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Marine biology: 497 |
spellingShingle |
Climate change Sea ice Habitat use Time spent in area Cox proportional hazard models Satellite telemetry VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Marinbiologi: 497 VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Marine biology: 497 Blanchet, Marie-Anne Ermeline Lydersen, Christian Ims, Rolf Anker Lowther, Andrew D. Kovacs, Kit Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway |
topic_facet |
Climate change Sea ice Habitat use Time spent in area Cox proportional hazard models Satellite telemetry VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480::Marinbiologi: 497 VDP::Mathematics and natural science: 400::Zoology and botany: 480::Marine biology: 497 |
description |
Harbour seals Phoca vitulina are mainly considered a temperate species, but the world’s northernmost population resides year-round in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In this study we document post-moulting at-sea movements of 30 individuals from this population using satellite relay data loggers deployed in the autumns of 2009 and 2010. All of the seals showed a strong preference for the west side of the archipelago, staying mainly in coastal areas (<50 km over the continental shelf), but seldom entering the fjord systems. Distance swam per day, individual home range size, and trip duration increased throughout the winter to a peak that was reached when drifting sea ice in the region was at a maximum. No effect of age was observed, but sex differences were significant; males occupied larger areas than females. Habitat selection was quantified by modelling time spent in area (TSA) as a function of environmental parameters using Cox proportional hazard models (CPH). The harbour seals avoided heavy ice concentrations (>50%) but did occupy areas with substantial amounts of drifting ice (5 to 25%). Shallow water (<100 m) and steep bathymetric slopes were preferred to deep water or flat-bottom areas. Harbour seal distribution in Svalbard is largely restricted to coastal areas that are heavily influenced by Atlantic water brought northward in the West Spitsbergen Current; both the temperature and influx of this water type are predicted to increase in the future. It is thus likely that environmental conditions in Svalbard in the future will become more favourable for harbour seals. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Blanchet, Marie-Anne Ermeline Lydersen, Christian Ims, Rolf Anker Lowther, Andrew D. Kovacs, Kit |
author_facet |
Blanchet, Marie-Anne Ermeline Lydersen, Christian Ims, Rolf Anker Lowther, Andrew D. Kovacs, Kit |
author_sort |
Blanchet, Marie-Anne Ermeline |
title |
Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway |
title_short |
Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway |
title_full |
Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway |
title_fullStr |
Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway |
title_full_unstemmed |
Harbour seal Phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, Norway |
title_sort |
harbour seal phoca vitulina movement patterns in the high-arctic archipelago of svalbard, norway |
publisher |
Inter-Research (IR) |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7898 https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00580 |
geographic |
Arctic Norway Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Climate change harbour seal Phoca vitulina Sea ice Svalbard Spitsbergen |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Climate change harbour seal Phoca vitulina Sea ice Svalbard Spitsbergen |
op_relation |
Aquatic Biology 21(2014) nr. 3 s. 167-181 FRIDAID 1189849 doi:10.3354/ab00580 1864-7790 https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7898 URN:NBN:no-uit_munin_7466 |
op_rights |
openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3354/ab00580 |
container_title |
Aquatic Biology |
container_volume |
21 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
167 |
op_container_end_page |
181 |
_version_ |
1766302928795074560 |