> > Dear all, > > My co-authors and I are pleased to present our recently published paper on > the development of a low-power integrated sonar, GPS and movement tag which > successfully recorded organism abundance and detailed predator-prey > interactions on southern elephant seals. > > > > The article can be accessed here > https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ZDGM3RueHPvOT > > > > Goulet, P., Guinet, C., Swift, R., Madsen, P. T., & Johnson, M. (2019). A > miniature biomimetic sonar and movement tag to study the biotic environment > and predator-prey interactions in aquatic animals. *Deep Sea Research > Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers*, *148*, 1–11. > https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2019.04.007 > > > Abstract: > > How predators find, select and capture prey is central to understanding > trophic cascades and ecosystem structure. But despite advances in > biologging technology, obtaining in situ observations of organisms and > their interactions remains challenging in the marine environment. For some > species of toothed whales, echoes from organisms insonified by echolocation > clicks and recorded by sound logging tags have provided a fine-scale view > of prey density, and predator and prey behaviour during capture attempts, > but such information is not available for marine predators that do not > echolocate. Here the development and performance of a miniature biomimetic > sonar and movement tag capable of acquiring similar data from > non-echolocating marine predators is reported. The tag, weighing 200 g in > air, records wide bandwidth sonar data at up to 50 pings a second > synchronously with fast-sampling sensors for depth, acceleration, magnetic > field and GPS. This sensor suite enables biotic conditions and predator > behaviour to be related to geographic location over long-duration foraging > trips by apex marine predators. The sonar operates at 1.5 MHz with a 3.4° > beamwidth and a source level of 190 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m. Sonar recordings > from a trial deployment of the tag on a southern elephant seal contained > frequent targets corresponding to small organisms up to 6 m ahead of the > tagged animal. Synchronously sampled movement data allowed interpretation > of whether the seal attempted to capture organisms that it approached > closely while the high sonar ping rate revealed attempts by prey to escape. > Results from this trial demonstrate the ability of the tag to quantify the > biotic environment and to track individual prey captures, providing > fine-scale information on predator-prey interactions which has been > difficult to obtain from non-echolocating marine animals. > > > Pauline Goulet and coauthors > > > *Pauline Goulet, Sea Mammal Research Unit, St Andrews, UK, > [email protected] > > >
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