F. Bultelle, I. Boutet, S. Devin, F. Caza, Y. St-Pierre, R. Péden, P. Brousseau, P. Chan, D. Vaudry, F. Le Foll, M. Fournier, M. Auffret, B. Rocher. (2021). Molecular response of a sub-antarctic population of the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis platensis) to a moderate thermal stress (Vol. 169).
Abstract: The Kerguelen Islands (49°26′S, 69°50′E) represent a unique environment due to their geographical isolation, which protects them from anthropogenic pollution. The ability of the endemic mussel, part of the Mytilus complex, to cope with moderate heat stress was explored using omic tools. Transcripts involved in six major metabolic functions were selected and the qRT-PCR data indicated mainly changes in aerobic and anaerobic energy metabolism and stress response. Proteomic comparisons revealed a typical stress response pattern with cytoskeleton modifications and elements suggesting increased energy metabolism. Results also suggest conservation of protein homeostasis by the long-lasting presence of HSP while a general decrease in transcription is observed. The overall findings are consistent with an adaptive response to moderate stresses in mussels in good physiological condition, i.e. living in a low-impact site, and with the literature concerning this model species. Therefore, local blue mussels could be advantageously integrated into biomonitoring strategies, especially in the context of Global Change.
Keywords: 2DE Abiotic stress Biomonitoring Gills Indicator species Kerguelen island Mytilus sp. qRT-PCR Temperature
Programme: 409
|
Margot Arnould-Pétré, Charlène Guillaumot, Bruno Danis, Jean-Pierre Féral, Thomas Saucède. (2021). Individual-based model of population dynamics in a sea urchin of the Kerguelen Plateau (Southern Ocean), Abatus cordatus, under changing environmental conditions (Vol. 440).
Abstract: The Kerguelen Islands are part of the French Southern Territories, located at the limit of the Indian and Southern oceans. They are highly impacted by climate change, and coastal marine areas are particularly at risk. Assessing the responses of species and populations to environmental change is challenging in such areas for which ecological modelling can constitute a helpful approach. In the present work, a DEB-IBM model (Dynamic Energy Budget – Individual-Based Model) was generated to simulate and predict population dynamics in an endemic and common benthic species of shallow marine habitats of the Kerguelen Islands, the sea urchin Abatus cordatus. The model relies on a dynamic energy budget model (DEB) developed at the individual level. Upscaled to an individual-based population model (IBM), it then enables to model population dynamics through time as a result of individual physiological responses to environmental variations. The model was successfully built for a reference site to simulate the response of populations to variations in food resources and temperature. Then, it was implemented to model population dynamics at other sites and for the different IPCC climate change scenarios RCP 2.6 and 8.5. Under present-day conditions, models predict a more determinant effect of food resources on population densities, and on juvenile densities in particular, relative to temperature. In contrast, simulations predict a sharp decline in population densities under conditions of IPCC scenarios RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 with a determinant effect of water warming leading to the extinction of most vulnerable populations after a 30-year simulation time due to high mortality levels associated with peaks of high temperatures. Such a dynamic model is here applied for the first time to a Southern Ocean benthic and brooding species and offers interesting prospects for Antarctic and sub-Antarctic biodiversity research. It could constitute a useful tool to support conservation studies in these remote regions where access and bio-monitoring represent challenging issues.
Keywords: Climate change Dynamic energy budget Ecological modelling Endemic echinoderm Individual-based model Kerguelen Model sensitivity
Programme: 1044
|
Emilia Trudnowska, Léo Lacour, Mathieu Ardyna, Andreas Rogge, Jean Olivier Irisson, Anya M. Waite, Marcel Babin, Lars Stemmann. (2021). Marine snow morphology illuminates the evolution of phytoplankton blooms and determines their subsequent vertical export (Vol. 12).
Abstract: The organic carbon produced in the ocean’s surface by phytoplankton is either passed through the food web or exported to the ocean interior as marine snow. The rate and efficiency of such vertical export strongly depend on the size, structure and shape of individual particles, but apart from size, other morphological properties are still not quantitatively monitored. With the growing number of in situ imaging technologies, there is now a great possibility to analyze the morphology of individual marine snow. Thus, automated methods for their classification are urgently needed. Consequently, here we present a simple, objective categorization method of marine snow into a few ecologically meaningful functional morphotypes using field data from successive phases of the Arctic phytoplankton bloom. The proposed approach is a promising tool for future studies aiming to integrate the diversity, composition and morphology of marine snow into our understanding of the biological carbon pump.
Keywords: Carbon cycle Marine biology
Programme: 1164
|
N. Aubone, M. Saraceno, M. L. Torres Alberto, J. Campagna, L. Le Ster, B. Picard, M. Hindell, C. Campagna, C. R. Guinet. (2021). Physical changes recorded by a deep diving seal on the Patagonian slope drive large ecological changes (Vol. 223).
Abstract: The Patagonian slope is the region where Subantarctic waters and bathymetry give raise to physical and ecological processes that support a rich biodiversity and a large-scale industrial fisheries. Unique among the species that depend on this region is the deep diving southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina. We report here on changes in the foraging behavior of a female seal explained by the combined effect of a cold and high salinity water mass and a decrease in surface chlorophyll-a concentration. Behavioral and oceanographic data from about 5000 profiles of temperature, conductivity, pressure, light and prey encounters were collected within an area ranging 59.5–61°W and 46–47.5°S, at depths of 300–700 m, on the Patagonian slope, during November–December 2018. A decrease in temperature (0.15 °C) and an increase in salinity (0.03) was found below the mixed layer, during December. Light data revealed a significant increase of irradiance in December (almost reaching the ocean bottom) associated with a decrease of chlorophyll-a in the upper levels. Concomitantly, the seal had a different diving behavior in December, foraging near the surface at night and close to the bottom during daylight hours. Also, the seal doubled the prey capture attempts in December compared to November. This study reveals the importance of ocean physical properties on seal's diving and foraging behavior, and how this changes, although small, can impact on seals diet and body composition during their post-breeding trips.
Keywords: Elephant seals Malvinas current Patagonian shelf slope Southwestern Atlantic Ocean
Programme: 1201
|
Manfred R. Enstipp, Charles-André Bost, Céline Le Bohec, Nicolas Chatelain, Henri Weimerskirch, Yves Handrich. (2021). The early life of king penguins: ontogeny of dive capacity and foraging behaviour in an expert diver (Vol. 224). Bachelor's thesis, , .
Abstract: The period of emancipation in seabirds, when juveniles change from a terrestrial existence to a life at sea, is associated with many challenges. Apart from finding favourable foraging sites, they have to develop effective prey search patterns and physiological capacities that enable them to capture sufficient prey to meet their energetic needs. Animals that dive to forage, such as king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus), need to acquire an adequate breath-hold capacity, allowing them to locate and capture prey at depth. To investigate the ontogeny of their dive capacity and foraging performance, we implanted juvenile king penguins before their first departure to sea and also adult breeders with a data-logger recording pressure and temperature. We found that juvenile king penguins possess a remarkable dive capacity when leaving their natal colony, enabling them to conduct dives in excess of 100 m within their first week at sea. Despite this, juvenile dive/foraging performance, investigated in relation to dive depth, remained below the adult level throughout their first year at sea, probably reflecting physiological limitations as a result of incomplete maturation. A significantly shallower foraging depth of juveniles, particularly during their first 5 months at sea, could also indicate differences in foraging strategy and targeted prey. The initially greater wiggle rate suggests that juveniles fed opportunistically and also targeted different prey from adults and/or that many of the wiggles of juveniles reflect unsuccessful prey-capture attempts, indicating a lower foraging proficiency. After 5 months, this difference disappeared, suggesting sufficient physical maturation and improvement of juvenile foraging skills.
Keywords: Animals Behavior, Animal Bio-logging Diving Feeding Behavior Foraging proficiency Ontogeny Seabirds Spheniscidae Temperature Wiggles
Programme: 137,394
|
Zambra López-Farrán, Charlène Guillaumot, Luis Vargas-Chacoff, Kurt Paschke, Valérie Dulière, Bruno Danis, Elie Poulin, Thomas Saucède, Jonathan Waters, Karin Gérard. (2021). Is the southern crab Halicarcinus planatus (Fabricius, 1775) the next invader of Antarctica? (Vol. 27).
Abstract: The potential for biological colonization of Antarctic shores is an increasingly important topic in the context of anthropogenic warming. Successful Antarctic invasions to date have been recorded exclusively from terrestrial habitats. While non-native marine species such as crabs, mussels and tunicates have already been reported from Antarctic coasts, none have as yet established there. Among the potential marine invaders of Antarctic shallow waters is Halicarcinus planatus (Fabricius, 1775), a crab with a circum-Subantarctic distribution and substantial larval dispersal capacity. An ovigerous female of this species was found in shallow waters of Deception Island, South Shetland Islands in 2010. A combination of physiological experiments and ecological modelling was used to assess the potential niche of H. planatus and estimate its future southward boundaries under climate change scenarios. We show that H. planatus has a minimum thermal limit of 1°C, and that its current distribution (assessed by sampling and niche modelling) is physiologically restricted to the Subantarctic region. While this species is presently unable to survive in Antarctica, future warming under both ‘strong mitigation’ and ‘no mitigation’ greenhouse gas emission scenarios will favour its niche expansion to the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) by 2100. Future human activity also has potential to increase the probability of anthropogenic translocation of this species into Antarctic ecosystems.
Keywords: climate change establishment niche modelling non-native species reptant crab Southern Ocean survival thermotolerance
Programme: 1044
|
Yves Cherel. (2021). ?Mastigoteuthis B Clarke, 1980, is a junior synonym of Asperoteuthis acanthoderma (Lu, 1977) (Cephalopoda, Oegopsida, Chiroteuthidae), a rare cosmopolitan deep-sea squid (Vol. 51).
Abstract: The present work resolved the long-standing taxonomic problem associated with the enigmatic ?Mastigoteuthis B Clarke, 1980, by demonstrating that these lower beaks correspond to those of the large deep-sea chiroteuthid Asperoteuthis acanthoderma (Lu, 1977). A review of the existing literature listed 22 specimens of A. acanthoderma, but synonymizing ?Mastigoteuthis B with A. acanthoderma increased 14 times the species record worldwide. Pooling the data from both specimens and beaks (a total of 329 individuals) indicates that the species has a circumglobal distribution, since it occurs in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. The synonymization also highlights trophic relationships of the species as a prey of top marine predators. Lower beaks of A. acanthoderma were mostly found in stomachs of sperm whales, but a few beaks were also recorded from stomach contents of sharks, swordfish and the wandering albatross.
Programme: 109
|
Danish A. Ahmed, Emma J. Hudgins, Ross N. Cuthbert, Phillip J. Haubrock, David Renault, Elsa Bonnaud, Christophe Diagne, Franck Courchamp. (2021). Modelling the damage costs of invasive alien species.
Abstract: The rate of biological invasions is growing unprecedentedly, threatening ecological and socioeconomic systems worldwide. Quantitative understandings of invasion temporal trajectories are essential to discern current and future economic impacts of invaders, and then to inform future management strategies. Here, we examine the temporal trends of cumulative invasion costs by developing and testing a novel mathematical model with a population dynamical approach based on logistic growth. This model characterises temporal cost developments into four curve types (I–IV), each with distinct mathematical and qualitative properties, allowing for the parameterization of maximum cumulative costs, carrying capacities and growth rates. We test our model using damage cost data for eight genera (Rattus, Aedes, Canis, Oryctolagus, Sturnus, Ceratitis, Sus and Lymantria) extracted from the InvaCost database—which is the most up-to-date and comprehensive global compilation of economic cost estimates associated with invasive alien species. We find fundamental differences in the temporal dynamics of damage costs among genera, indicating they depend on invasion duration, species ecology and impacted sectors of economic activity. The fitted cost curves indicate a lack of broadscale support for saturation between invader density and impact, including for Canis, Oryctolagus and Lymantria, whereby costs continue to increase with no sign of saturation. For other taxa, predicted saturations may arise from data availability issues resulting from an underreporting of costs in many invaded regions. Overall, this population dynamical approach can produce cost trajectories for additional existing and emerging species, and can estimate the ecological parameters governing the linkage between population dynamics and cost dynamics.
Programme: 136
|
R. Sulzbach, H. Dobslaw, M. Thomas. (2021). High-Resolution Numerical Modeling of Barotropic Global Ocean Tides for Satellite Gravimetry (Vol. 126).
Abstract: The recently upgraded barotropic tidal model TiME is employed to study the influence of fundamental tidal processes, the chosen model resolution, and the bathymetric map on the achievable model accuracy, exemplary for the M2 tide. Additionally, the newly introduced pole-rotation scheme allows to estimate the model’s inherent precision (open ocean rms: 0.90 cm) and enables studies of the Arctic domain without numerical deviations originating from pole cap handling. We find that the smallest open ocean rms with respect to the FES14-atlas (3.39 cm) is obtained when tidal dissipation is carried out to similar parts by quadratic bottom friction, wave drag, and parametrized eddy-viscosity. This setting proves versatile to obtaining high accuracy values for a diverse ensemble of additional partial tides. Using the preferred model settings, we show that for certain minor tides it is possible to obtain solutions that are more accurate than results derived with admittance assumptions from data-constrained tidal atlases. As linear admittance derived minor tides are routinely used for de-aliasing of satellite gravimetric data, this opens the potential for improving gravity field products by employing the solutions from TiME.
Keywords: M2-tide minor tides pole-rotation self-attraction and loading tide-generating potential topographic wavedrag
Programme: 688
|
Rob Harcourt, Mark A. Hindell, Clive R. McMahon, Kimberly T. Goetz, Jean-Benoit Charrassin, Karine Heerah, Rachel Holser, Ian D. Jonsen, Michelle R. Shero, Xavier Hoenner, Rose Foster, Baukje Lenting, Esther Tarszisz, Matthew Harry Pinkerton. (2021). Regional Variation in Winter Foraging Strategies by Weddell Seals in Eastern Antarctica and the Ross Sea (Vol. 8).
Abstract: The relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic determinants of animal foraging is often difficult to quantify. The most southerly breeding mammal, the Weddell seal, remains in the Antarctic pack-ice year-round. We compared Weddell seals tagged at three geographically and hydrographically distinct locations in East Antarctica (Prydz Bay, Terre Adélie, and the Ross Sea) to quantify the role of individual variability and habitat structure in winter foraging behaviour. Most Weddell seals remained in relatively small areas close to the coast throughout the winter, but some dispersed widely. Individual utilisation distributions (UDi, a measure of the total area used by an individual seal) ranged from 125 to 20,825 km2. This variability was not due to size or sex but may be due to other intrinsic states for example reproductive condition or personality. The type of foraging (benthic vs. pelagic) varied from 56.6 ± 14.9% benthic dives in Prydz Bay through 42.1 ± 9.4% Terre Adélie to only 25.1 ± 8.7% in the Ross Sea reflecting regional hydrographic structure. The probability of benthic diving was less likely the deeper the ocean. Ocean topography was also influential at the population level; seals from Terre Adélie, with its relatively narrow continental shelf, had a core (50%) UD of only 200 km2, considerably smaller than the Ross Sea (1650 km2) and Prydz Bay (1700 km2). Sea ice concentration had little influence on the time the seals spent in shallow coastal waters, but in deeper offshore water they used areas of higher ice concentration. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Ross Sea encompass all the observed Weddell seal habitat, and future MPAs that include the Antarctic continental shelf are likely to effectively protect key Weddell seal habitat.
Programme: 1182
|