ArticleScientific reports2019
Reproductive success delays moult phenology in a polar mammal.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ringed Seal (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Post-lactation mass recovery and metabolic hormone dynamics in adult female Weddell seals.General and comparative endocrinology · 2025Article
- Breath-hold capacities and circadian dive rhythmicity shape optimal foraging strategies in a polar marine mammal, the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii).Communications biology · 2024Article
- Individual variation in life-history timing: synchronous presence, asynchronous events and phenological compensation in a wild mammal.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Iron mobilization during lactation reduces oxygen stores in a diving mammal.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Seasonal resource pulses and the foraging depth of a Southern Ocean top predator.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Article
- Using community photography to investigate phenology: A case study of coat molt in the mountain goat (Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Thermoregulatory costs in molting Antarctic Weddell seals: impacts of physiological and environmental conditions: Themed Issue Article: Conservation of Southern Hemisphere Mammals in a Changing World.Conservation physiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animals can respond to dynamic environments through phenological plasticity of life history events; however, changes in one part of the annual cycle can diminish the success of subsequent life history events. Our aims were to determine the associations between reproduction and moult phenology across years and to quantify phenological plasticity across varying environmental conditions. We conducted demographic surveys of 4,252 flipper-tagged Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) in the Ross Sea, Antarctica during four austral summers. At each sighting, seals were assigned a moult code based on the visible presence of new fur and the start date of each animal's moult was back-calculated. Reproductive success and parturition dates were obtained for the breeding season prior to and following the moult. We found that successful reproduction delayed moult by 16 days relative to non-parturient females. Phenology of the intervening moult was indicative of previous reproductive dynamics but not predictive of subsequent reproductive outcomes. Across years, moult phenology varied by about two weeks and covaried strongly with sea ice break-out timing for all reproductive categories. Our findings suggest these polar mammals have some flexibility within the annual cycle that allows adjustment of moult phenology to fluctuating environmental conditions without compromising future reproductive success.
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