Aarhus Universitets segl

English

Du er her: AU » Om AU » Organisation » Influence of environmental variability on harbour porpois...

Om AU

Influence of environmental variability on harbour porpoise movement

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

Dokumenter

  • m648p207

    Forlagets udgivne version, 2,39 MB, PDF-dokument

DOI

The harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena is a small marine predator with a high conservation status in Europe and the USA. To protect the species effectively, it is crucial to understand its movement patterns and how the distribution of intensively used foraging areas can be predicted from environmental conditions. Here, we investigated the influence of both static and dynamic environmental conditions on large-scale harbour porpoise movements in the North Sea. We used long-term movement data from 57 individuals tracked during 1999-2017 in a state-space model to estimate the underlying behavioural states, i.e. whether animals used area-restricted or directed movements. Subsequently, we assessed whether the probability of using area-restricted movements was related to environmental conditions using a generalized linear mixed model. Harbour porpoises were more likely to use area-restricted movements in areas with low salinity levels, relatively high chlorophyll a concentrations and low current velocity, and in areas with steep bottom slopes, suggesting that such areas are important foraging grounds for porpoises. Our study identifies environmental parameters of relevance for predicting harbour porpoise foraging hot spots over space and time in a dynamic system. The study illustrates how movement patterns and data on environmental conditions can be combined, which is valuable to the conservation of marine mammals.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftMarine Ecology Progress Series
Vol/bind648
Sider (fra-til)207-219
Antal sider13
ISSN0171-8630
DOI
StatusUdgivet - aug. 2020

    Forskningsområder

  • Argos satellite tracking, North sea, Phocoena phocoena, arearestricted search, cetacean concervation, harbor porpoise, movement behavior, switching state-space model

Se relationer på Aarhus Universitet Citationsformater

Projekter

Download-statistik

Ingen data tilgængelig

ID: 196000776