Dear Colleagues, My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our paper on 'Environmental influences on foraging effort, success and efficiency in female Australian fur seals' in Scientific Reports.
Citation: Speakman, C. N., Hoskins, A. J., Hindell, M. A., Costa, D. P., Hartog, J. R., Hobday, A. J. & Arnould, J. P. Y. (2020) Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73579-y Abstract: Understanding the factors which influence foraging behaviour and success in marine mammals is crucial to predicting how their populations may respond to environmental change. The Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus, AUFS) is a predominantly benthic forager on the shallow continental shelf of Bass Strait, and represents the greatest biomass of marine predators in south-eastern Australia. The south-east Australian region is experiencing rapid oceanic warming, predicted to lead to substantial alterations in prey diversity, distribution and abundance. In the present study, foraging effort and indices of foraging success and efficiency were investigated in 138 adult female AUFS (970 foraging trips) during the winters of 1998-2019. Large scale climate conditions had a strong influence on foraging effort, foraging success and efficiency. Foraging effort and foraging success were also strongly influenced by winter chlorophyll-a concentrations and sea-surface height anomalies in Bass Strait. The results suggest increasing foraging effort and decreasing foraging success and efficiency under anticipated environmental conditions, which may have population-level impacts. The paper is available at www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73579-y<http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73579-y>. If you have trouble accessing it, please send me an email ([email protected]) to request a pdf. All the best Cassie Cassie Speakman PhD candidate School of Life & Environmental Sciences Centre for Integrative Ecology Deakin University, Burwood VIC Mobile: +61 477190437 Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Twitter: @CassieSpeakman I acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations as the Traditional Owners of the land upon which the Deakin University Burwood campus is located.
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