Foraging distribution of Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) in a highly impacted estuary
| Autor: | Sara G. Allen, Deborah E. Craven-Green, A. Peter Klimley, Hal Markowitz, Deborah L. Elliott-Fisk, Emma K. Grigg |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category Ecology biology Foraging Estuary biology.organism_classification Spatial distribution Phoca Predation Fishery Marine mammal Abundance (ecology) Genetics Harbor seal Environmental science Animal Science and Zoology Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Mammalogy. 93:282-293 |
| ISSN: | 1545-1542 0022-2372 |
| DOI: | 10.1644/11-mamm-a-128.1 |
| Popis: | Assessing the relative importance of environmental and anthropogenic influences on the distribution of wild populations is an important step in designing spatially explicit plans for their management and protection. We examined environmental variables correlated with the spatial distribution of eastern Pacific harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii), a marine mammal common to coastal waters, in a large, highly urbanized estuary. We assessed the relationship between prey abundance, depth, bottom relief, proximity to terrestrial haul-out sites and 3 potential sources of anthropogenic influence, and the in-water spatial distribution of seals. We identified locations of seals using satellite-linked telemetry, and used partial Mantel tests to assess which environmental variables were most strongly linked to seal foraging distribution, given spatial autocorrelation within variables. Mann–Whitney tests were used to compare environmental characteristics of locations of seals with a random distribution of... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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