St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • Biology (School of)
  • Biology
  • Biology Theses
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Diving and depth use in seals : inferences from telemetry data using regression and random walk movement

Thumbnail
View/Open
TheoniPhotopoulouPhDThesis.pdf (66.42Mb)
TPhotopoulou_diveAbstr.diveZone_6point.R (43.77Kb)
TPhotopoulou_diveSim.diveAbstr.R (30.45Kb)
Date
2012
Author
Photopoulou, Theoni
Supervisor
Matthiopoulos, Jason
Thomas, Len
Fedak, Mike
Funder
Natural Environment Research Council (Great Britain). Sea Mammal Research Unit
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Abstract
This thesis focuses on methods for using telemetry data to make inferences about the diving behaviour of seals, in terms of their use of depth over time. Three species are considered: grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and elephant seals (Mirounga leonina and Mirounga angustirostris). Data came from Geographic Positioning System phone tags (GPS phone tags) for grey seals, and Conductivity Temperature Depth Satellite Relay Data Loggers (CTD-SRDLs) for southern elephant seals (M.leonina); both are instruments that transmit Information in abstracted form. Data for northern elephant seals (M.angustirostris) came from anarchival prototype SRDL-type instrument that stored tri-axial acceleration information at high resolution and required recovery to obtain the data. The usefulness of maximum dive depth as a measure of depth use in grey seals, known to forage on the seabed, is explored with a logistic regression analysis using a Generalized Additive Model. Often, maximum dive depth will not be a representative measure of the way seals apportion their time in the water column, so a framework for quantifying depth use is developed for abstracted dive data from southern elephant seals and validated with high resolution time-depth data from northern elephant seals. The implications of using a broken-stick model for abstracting dive data on-board CTD-SRDLs are investigated in terms of its performance and uncertainty. A method for obtaining limits on the time-depth area within which these abstracted dives occurred is developed and used as part of a Bayesian state-space random walk model framework to reconstruct dive trajectories and estimate depth use profiles for abstracted dive data.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Collections
  • Biology Theses
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3644

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter