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Sex-specific variation in the use of vertical habitat by a resident Antarctic top predator

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Date
28/10/2020
Author
Photopoulou, Theoni
Heerah, Karine
Pohle, Jennifer
Boehme, Lars
Funder
NERC
Grant ID
NE/G014833/1
Keywords
Diving behaviour
Water mass
Continental shelf
Weddell seal
Sex-specific variation
Hidden Markov model
GC Oceanography
QH301 Biology
DAS
BDC
R2C
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Abstract
Patterns of habitat use are commonly studied in horizontal space, but this does not capture the four-dimensional nature of ocean habitats (space, depth, and time). Deep-diving marine animals encounter varying oceanographic conditions, particularly at the poles, where there is strong seasonal variation in vertical ocean structuring. This dimension of space use is hidden if we only consider horizontal movement. To identify different diving behaviours and usage patterns of vertically distributed habitat, we use hidden Markov models fitted to telemetry data from an air-breathing top predator, the Weddell seal, in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. We present evidence of overlapping use of high-density, continental shelf water masses by both sexes, as well as important differences in their preferences for oceanographic conditions. Males spend more time in the unique high-salinity shelf water masses found at depth, while females also venture off the continental shelf and visit warmer, shallower water masses. Both sexes exhibit a diurnal pattern in diving behaviour (deep in the day, shallow at night) that persists from austral autumn into winter. The differences in habitat use in this resident, sexually monomorphic Antarctic top predator suggest a different set of needs and constraints operating at the intraspecific level, not driven by body size.
Citation
Photopoulou , T , Heerah , K , Pohle , J & Boehme , L 2020 , ' Sex-specific variation in the use of vertical habitat by a resident Antarctic top predator ' , Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , vol. 287 , no. 1937 , 20201447 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1447
Publication
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1447
ISSN
0962-8452
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Description
Funding: The data collection was funded by NERC grant nos NE/G014833/1 and NE/G014086/1. T.P. was supported by a Royal Society Newton International Fellowship (NF170682). K.H. was supported by a Marie-Skłodowska Curie Research Fellowship.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/20811

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