ArticleScientific reports2019
Submesoscale ocean fronts act as biological hotspot for southern elephant seal.
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 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ubiquity and seasonality of deep submesoscales in the Southern Ocean revealed by elephant seals.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The three-dimensional structure of fine-scale, vertical velocities in the Southern Ocean inferred from space.Communications earth & environment · 2026Article
- Exploring ocean data: comprehensive approaches to data collection and the role of public databases in facilitating the interconnection between ocean and human health.Frontiers in public health · 2026Review
- Observed regimes of submesoscale dynamics in the Southern Ocean seasonal ice zone.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Novel CTD tag establishes shark fins as ocean observing platforms.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Large sensory volumes enable Southern elephant seals to exploit sparse deep-sea prey.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Track and dive-based movement metrics do not predict the number of prey encountered by a marine predator.Movement ecology · 2023Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
The area west of the Kerguelen Islands (20-70°E/45-60°S) is characterized by a weak mesoscale activity except for a standing meander region of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) localized between 20 and 40°E. A unique bio-physical dataset at high-resolution collected by a southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) reveals a conspicuous increase in foraging activity at the standing meander site up to 5 times larger than during the rest of her three-month trip west of the Kerguelen Islands. Here, we propose a physical explanation for such high biological activity based on the study of small-scale fronts with scales of 5 to 20 km, also called submesoscales. The standing meander is associated with intensified frontal dynamics at submesoscale, not observed in the rest of the region. Results shed new light on the spatial distribution of submesoscale fronts in the under-sampled area west of the Kerguelen plateau and emphasize their importance for upper trophic levels. Despite that most elephant seals target foraging grounds east of the Kerguelen Plateau, our findings suggest that excursions to the west are not accidental, and may be explained by the recurrently elevated physical and biological activity of the site. As such, other standing meanders of the ACC may also act as biological hotspots where trophic interactions are stimulated by submesoscale turbulence.
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