Ice matters: Life-history strategies of two Antarctic seals dictate climate change eventualities in the Weddell Sea.

ABSTRACT: The impacts of climate change in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are not uniform and ice-obligate species with dissimilar life-history characteristics will likely respond differently to their changing ecosystems. We use a unique data set of Weddell Leptonychotes weddellii and crabeater seals' (CESs) Lobodon carcinophaga breeding season distribution in the Weddell Sea, determined from satellite imagery. We contrast the theoretical climate impacts on both ice-obligate predators who differ in life-history characteristics: CESs are highly specialized Antarctic krill Euphausia superba predators and breed in the seasonal pack ice; Weddell seals (WESs) are generalist predators and breed on comparatively stable fast ice. We used presence-absence data and a suite of remotely sensed environmental

SUBMITTER: Wege M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9293148 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature