ArticleCommunications biology2024
Breath-hold capacities and circadian dive rhythmicity shape optimal foraging strategies in a polar marine mammal, the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii).
Article in Communications biology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Forest fire smoke as a threat to the health of river dolphins.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2025Article
- Behavioral shifts of reintroduced Milu deer Elaphurus davidianus in East Dongting lake of China.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Novel presentation and pathophysiology of heavy parasitic burdens in Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) during sedation.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Air-breathing vertebrates must balance their response to diel shifts in prey accessibility with physiological thresholds and the need to surface after each dive. Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) dive behaviors were tracked across the year under rapidly-changing light regimes in the Ross Sea, Antarctica ( ~ 75-77°S). This provides a 'natural experiment' with free-living seals experiencing 24-hrs of light (Polar Day), light/dark cycling, and continuous darkness (Polar Night). The Weddell seal's temporal niche switches from nocturnal diving in the summer to diurnality for the remainder of the year. Rhythmicity in dive efforts (depth, duration, post-dive surface recuperation, bottom time, and exceeding physiologic thresholds) is stronger and more closely circadian during times of the year with light/dark cycling compared with Polar Day or Night. With light/dark cycling, animals also make the most extreme dives (those that far exceed the calculated aerobic dive limit, cADL) significantly earlier than solar noon. Offsetting the longest dives that require longer surface recuperation times from mid-day allows animals to maximize total dive time under high-light conditions conducive for visual hunting. We identify an optimal foraging strategy to exploit a diel preyscape in a highly-seasonal environment, while balancing tradeoffs imposed by physiological thresholds in a diving mammal.
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Registered trials
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