Browsing by Author "Goebel, Michael E."
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- ItemFuture climate‐induced distribution shifts in a sexually dimorphic key predator of the Southern Ocean(2024) Ouled‐Cheikh, Jazel; March, David; Borras Chavez, Renato Francisco; Drago, Massimiliano; Goebel, Michael E.; Farina Rivas, José Miguel; Gazo, Manel; Coll, Marta; Cardona, LuisThe response to climate change in highly dimorphic species can be hindered by differences between sexes in habitat preferences and movement patterns. The Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, is the most abundant pinniped in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the main consumers of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, in the Southern Ocean. However, the populations breeding in the Atlantic Southern Ocean are decreasing, partly due to global warming. Male and female Antarctic fur seals differ greatly in body size and foraging ecology, and little is known about their sex-specific responses to climate change. We used satellite tracking data and Earth System Models to predict changes in habitat suitability for male and female Antarctic fur seals from the Western Antarctic Peninsula under different climate change scenarios. Under the most extreme scenario (SSP5-8.5; global average temperature +4.4°C projected by 2100), suitable habitat patches will shift southward during the non-breeding season, leading to a minor overall habitat loss. The impact will be more pronounced for females than for males. The reduction of winter foraging grounds might decrease the survival of post-weaned females, reducing recruitment and jeopardizing population viability. During the breeding season, when males fast on land, suitable foraging grounds for females off the South Shetland Islands will remain largely unmodified, and new ones will emerge in the Bellingshausen Sea. As Antarctic fur seals are income breeders, the foraging grounds of females should be reasonably close to the breeding colony. As a result, the new suitable foraging grounds will be useful for females only if nearby beaches currently covered by sea ice emerge by the end of the century. Furthermore, the colonization of these new, ice-free breeding locations might be limited by strong female philopatry. These results should be considered when managing the fisheries of Antarctic krill in the Southern Ocean.
- ItemLarge and in charge: cortisol levels vary with sex, diet, and body mass in an Antarctic predator, the leopard seal(2023) Sperou, Emily S.; Crocker, Daniel E.; Borrás Chávez, Renato Francisco; Costa, Daniel P.; Goebel, Michael E.; Kanatous, Shane B.; Krause, Douglas J.; Trumble, Stephen J.; Kienle, Sarah S.Evaluating physiological responses in the context of a species’ life history, demographics, and ecology is essential to understanding the health of individuals and populations. Here, we measured the main mammalian glucocorticoid, cortisol, in an elusive Antarctic apex predator, the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx). We also examined intraspecific variation in cortisol based on life history (sex), morphometrics (body mass, body condition), and ecological traits (δ15N, δ13C). To do this, blood samples, life history traits, and morphometric data were collected from 19 individual leopard seals off the Western Antarctic Peninsula. We found that adult leopard seals have remarkably high cortisol concentrations (100.35 ± 16.72 μg/dL), showing the highest circulating cortisol concentration ever reported for a pinniped: 147 μg/dL in an adult male. Leopard seal cortisol concentrations varied with sex, body mass, and diet. Large adult females had significantly lower cortisol (94.49 ± 10.12 μg/dL) than adult males (120.85 ± 6.20 μg/dL). Similarly, leopard seals with higher isotope values (i.e., adult females, δ15N: 11.35 ± 0.69‰) had lower cortisol concentrations than seals with lower isotope values (i.e., adult males, δ15N: 10.14 ± 1.65‰). Furthermore, we compared cortisol concentrations across 26 closely related Arctoid taxa (i.e., mustelids, bears, and pinnipeds) with comparable data. Leopard seals had the highest mean cortisol concentrations that were 1.25 to 50 times higher than other Arctoids. More broadly, Antarctic ice seals (Lobodontini: leopard seal, Ross seal, Weddell seal, crabeater seal) had higher cortisol concentrations compared to other pinnipeds and Arctoid species. Therefore, high cortisol is a characteristic of all lobodontines and may be a specialized adaptation within this Antarctic-dwelling clade. Together, our results highlight exceptionally high cortisol concentrations in leopard seals (and across lobodontines) and reveal high variability in cortisol concentrations among individuals from a single location. This information provides the context for understanding how leopard seal physiology changes with life history, ecology, and morphology and sets the foundation for assessing their physiology in the context of a rapidly changing Antarctic environment.
- ItemVariability in age of a Southern Ocean myctophid (Gymnoscopelus nicholsi) derived from scatrecovered otoliths(2020) Klemmedson, Angela D.; Reiss, Christian S.; Goebel, Michael E.; Kaufmann, Ronald S.; Dorval, Emmanis; Linkowski, Tomasz B.; Borrás Chávez, Renato FranciscoMyctophids are ecologically important in the Southern Ocean, where they occupy a central trophic position and are a key energy resource for top predators. However, understanding their population dynamics is limited by a paucity of data due to sampling challenges. Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella scats provide large collections of otoliths and other prey remains that can be used to form time series for important mesopelagic taxa such as Gymnoscopelus nicholsi (Gn). Examination of otoliths from scats allowed for a reconstruction of Gn age and length structure from 8 selected sample years between 2000 and 2015. While mean reconstructed length did not change significantly over the time series, mean age declined. Older age classes were scarce in scat samples, and age-6 animals were not found after 2008. During the same time period, Gn otoliths in fur seal scats declined from approximately 2000 to fewer than 200. The decline in the number of otoliths in Antarctic fur seal scat samples coupled with the negative trend in mean age suggests declines in the availability of Gn on the South Shetland Island slope region between 2000 and 2015. This study demonstrates the utility of central-place foragers in assessing populations of unfished but ecologically important mesopelagic fishes, thus allowing evaluation of hypotheses about their population structure and dispersal.