Data from: Environmental drivers of population-level variation in the migratory and diving ontogeny of an Arctic top predator
Creators
- 1. University of St Andrews
- 2. Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- 3. Norwegian Institute of Marine Research
- 4. UiT The Arctic University of Norway
- 5. Macquarie University
- 6. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources*
Description
The development of migratory strategies that enable juveniles to survive to recruitment is critical for species that exploit seasonal niches. For animals that forage via breath-hold diving this requires a combination of both physiological and foraging skill development. Here, we assess how migratory and dive behaviour develop over the first months of life for a migratory Arctic top predator, the harp seal, tracked using animal-borne satellite relay data loggers. We reveal similarities in migratory movements and differences in diving behaviour between juveniles from breeding populations in the Northwest Atlantic and Greenland Sea. In both regions, periods of resident and transient behaviour during migration were associated with proxies for food availability; sea ice concentration and water depth. However, while ontogenetic development of dive behaviour was similar for both groups of juveniles over the first 25 days, after this time Greenland Sea animals performed shorter and shallower dives and were more closely associated with sea ice than Northwest Atlantic animals. Together, these results highlight the role of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping early-life behaviour. Differences in the environmental conditions experienced during early-life may shape how populations respond to the rapid changes occurring in the Arctic ocean ecosystem.
Notes
Files
dive_summaries.csv
Additional details
Related works
- Is derived from
- 10.5281/zenodo.5901390 (DOI)
- 10.5281/zenodo.5901450 (DOI)