期刊
POLAR BIOLOGY
卷 36, 期 4, 页码 607-610出版社
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00300-012-1280-6
关键词
Antarctica; Breeding population; Byers Peninsula; Mirounga leonina; Pup
资金
- Spanish Ministry of Education and Science
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [CGL2005-06549-C02-02, CGL2007-29841-E, CTM2008-05205-E, CGL2005-06549-C02-01, POL2006-06635]
Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) are apex predators of marine Antarctic food webs, and variations in their populations have been linked to environmental changes. Consequently, measuring and reporting the status of elephant seal populations provide insights into the environmental status of Antarctica. Here, we present new information on the size of the elephant seal subpopulation on Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, maritime Antarctica). Based on a total count of 1,510 pups, we estimated a total subpopulation size of 5,530 individuals by using a conversion factor of 3.5. This represents an increase of 150 % since the subpopulation was first counted 30 years ago. Based on this finding, we hypothesize that the overall South Georgia stock, to which the subpopulation we estimated on Byers Peninsula belongs, could be increasing instead of remaining stable as previously thought.
作者
我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。
推荐
暂无数据