Publications matching your search query
Results 1 to 25 of 335
Baleen whales are extreme capital breeders, capable of fasting for more than half a year while migrating thousands of kilometres and nursing rapidly growing offspring that quadruple in body size over the same period. To understand this energetic conundrum…
Surveillance monitoring is important for detecting variations in species populations in response to natural and anthropogenic environmental changes. For seabirds this typically involves species-specific monitoring at breeding colonies.
We investigated Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) and leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) vocalizations using passive acoustic monitoring beneath landfast ice and open water, 5.6?km seaward from Davis Station, East Antarctica. Eight-minute recordings were manually sampled at 1?h intervals over 24?
As a species highly reliant on stable fast ice as a breeding platform, emperor penguins are increasingly challenged in their breeding attempts due to changes in fast ice conditions. We collated habitat information of 27 emperor penguin colonies in East Antarctica (43°-167°E)…
The weaning mass of southern elephant seal pups (Mirounga leonina) is a key predictor of their first-year survival probability. However, variations in pup morphometric characteristics (length, mass and body condition i.e. the residual of the allometric relationship between log(mass) and log(length))…
Dispersal is a ubiquitous phenomenon that affects the dynamics of the population and the evolution of natural populations; however, it is challenging to measure in most species. Furthermore, the influence of informed dispersal behaviors…
Human-caused climate change worsens with every increment of additional warming, although some impacts can develop abruptly. The potential for abrupt changes is far less understood in the Antarctic compared with the Arctic, but evidence is emerging for rapid…
Aim … To map presence, absence and ignorance of Antarctic seabird breeding occupancy at the spatial resolution of ice-free habitat sites to identify knowledge gaps and inform management and conservation. Location … East Antarctica between longitudes 30°?E and 150°?E.
Population monitoring provides information on species conservation status. We reassess the status of the southern elephant seal population at Macquarie Island. The number of cows on the isthmus, ~20% of the total population, correlated with counts for the whole island (i.e.
Genetic diversity is essential for maintaining healthy populations and ecosystems. Several approaches have recently been … developed to evaluate population genetic trends without necessarily collecting new genetic data. Such "genetic diversity … indicators" enable rapid…
Terrestrially breeding marine predators have experienced shifts in species distribution, prey availability, breeding phenology, and population dynamics due to climate change worldwide. These central-place foragers are restricted within proximity of their breeding colonies during the breeding season…
A southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) was found dead, stranded on a remote rock platform at Torndirrup, Western Australia, on 20 September 2022.
Southern hemisphere humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae, SHHW) breeding populations follow a high-fidelity Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) diet while feeding in distinct sectors of the Southern Ocean.
Knowledge about the movement ecology of endangered species is needed to identify biologically important areas and the spatio-temporal scale of potential human impacts on species. Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus)…
Identification of species' Biologically Important Areas (BIAs) is fundamental to conservation planning and species distribution models (SDMs) are a powerful tool commonly used to do this.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a commonly used management tool to safeguard marine life from anthropogenic impacts, yet their efficacy often remains untested.
The distribution of New Zealand sea lions is typically localised to New Zealand and its remote subantarctic islands. However, non-resident male sea lions were seen on Macquarie Island, 650 km from their nearest natal islands, in all months of all years from 1965 to 1980.
Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) are an external Territory of Australia, located approximately 4000 kilometres southwest of Australia in the southern Indian Ocean.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a commonly used management tool to safeguard marine life from anthropogenic impacts, yet their efficacy often remains untested.
A proportion of the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) population that breeds in the Kerguelen Plateau region seasonally migrates between their natal sub-Antarctic islands and moult haul-out locations on the Antarctic coastline.
Plastic pollution is distributed patchily around the world’s oceans. Likewise, marine organisms that are vulnerable to plastic ingestion or entanglement have uneven distributions. Understanding where wildlife encounters plastic is crucial for targeting research and mitigation. Oceanic seabirds…
The Southern Ocean, its ecosystem, and inhabitants are vulnerable to climate-mediated shifts in habitat conditions. These changes can affect marine predators in the long term through changes in the distribution, density, and quality of prey.
We tracked adult emperor penguins from Rothschild Island, west Antarctic Peninsula in 2015/2016 during a summer with extensive sea ice of long duration, contrasting with past years of reduced sea ice extent associated with the recent, rapid, warming trend across the region.
Species distributions are predicted to change with future climate-associated ecosystem changes such that so-called 'vagrant' individuals may become established or re-establish in areas currently thought to be beyond their principle ranges.
Background … Satellite tags were deployed on 50 east Australian humpback whales (breeding stock E1) between 2008 and 2010 on their southward migration, northward migration and feeding grounds in order to identify and describe migratory pathways, feeding grounds and possible calving areas.