期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
卷 289, 期 1967, 页码 -出版社
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2452
关键词
Mirounga leonina; body condition; drift rates; Southern Ocean; post-polynyas; foraging behaviour
资金
- IPEV programme [109, 1201]
- SNO-MEMO (PI C. Guinet)
- Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)
- CNES-TOSCA
- IMOS
- Australian Government
- University of Tasmania
- Australian Research Council Discovery Project [DP180101667]
- Australian Antarctic Division
- Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) [DE180100828]
- Comite d'ethique Anses/ENVA/UPEC [APAFiS: 21375]
- Australian Antarctic Animal Ethics Committee [AAS 2265, AAS 2794]
Antarctic polynyas are persistent open water areas that enable phytoplankton blooms. A study on southern elephant seals showed that most of them forage in polynyas and gain more energy from doing so. Despite other factors influencing their choice of feeding grounds, polynyas remain important for foraging.
Antarctic polynyas are persistent open water areas which enable early and large seasonal phytoplankton blooms. This high primary productivity, boosted by iron supply from coastal glaciers, attracts organisms from all trophic levels to form a rich and diverse community. How the ecological benefit of polynya productivity is translated to the highest trophic levels remains poorly resolved. We studied 119 southern elephant seals feeding over the Antarctic shelf and demonstrated that: (i) 96% of seals foraging here used polynyas, with individuals spending on average 62% of their time there; (ii) the seals exhibited more area-restricted search behaviour when in polynyas; and (iii) these seals gained more energy (indicated by increased buoyancy from greater fat stores) when inside polynyas. This higher-quality foraging existed even when ice was not present in the study area, indicating that these are important and predictable foraging grounds year-round. Despite these energetic advantages from using polynyas, not all the seals used them extensively. Factors other than food supply may influence an individual's choice in their use of feeding grounds, such as exposure to predation or the probability of being able to return to distant sub-Antarctic breeding sites.
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