Summary: | It is expected that climate change will impact ringed seals in thenear future through changes in the distribution and nature of seaice, as well as via changes in their prey base (Kelly, 2001; Loenget al., 2005). Therefore, accurate, current assessments of diet aretimely. This study investigated the spring diet of ringed seals collectedon land-fast ice at five locations in Spitsbergen, Svalbard.The geographic range of sampling, the relatively large samplesize, and the detailed biological information collected on eachseal, also allowed us to explore spatial, sex- and age-related variationin the diet of ringed seals from this region of the Arctic.
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