In this paper we present SES Dashboard, a linked data platform developed to manage information of Southern Elephant Seals ( Mirounga leonina Linnaeus, 1758) from Península Valdés colony (Patagonia, Argentina), collected over more than two decades of research. Southern elephant seals spend most of their time foraging at sea, alternating with two short and highly synchronized haul-outs ashore for breeding and molting. On land, the distribution of the colony extends along ≈350 km, while at sea individuals travel thousands of kilometers The information recorded is mainly based on georeferenced data from censuses, bioregisters (trajectories at sea and hydrographic profiles), and bibliography based on the above data. SES Dashboard was released in 2021 and published following the principles of Linked Open Data to improve its visibility, to make it shareable, extensible and easily reusable through a SPARQL endpoint.

The southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina , is one of the top predators inhabiting the Southern Ocean. Foraging at sea represents 80% of their annual cycle, during which they make extraordinary wide-ranging trips with long, deep, and continuous dives. Their feeding habits have been broadly studied using both traditional and advanced techniques, like stable isotope analysis. Here, we analyzed stable isotope ratios of C and N of host and sucking lice tissues to investigate the potential use of lice to infer the isotopic patterns of their host at a major scale while using a less invasive method. We collected samples of blood and lice, Lepidophthirus macrorhini , from 15 weaned pups in Península Valdés (Chubut, Argentina). C and N isotopic signals of lice and pups were correlated. The δ 13 C values of the lice were not different from those of their hosts, while the δ 15 N signals were statistically significantly enriched with respect to those of the pups. The isotopic composition of the lice would predictably mirror that of their hosts. However, the values of Δ 13 C and Δ 15 N (difference between lice and pup signals) differed from the literature-based reference values for hematophagous ectoparasites, indicating that lice could have changed the host recently or that the residence time in the pups has not been enough. Given that mothers and weaned pups differ isotopically due to lactation, the isotopic composition of lice could therefore be more representative of signals from females, implying a useful and a safe tool for identifying and measuring the magnitude of trophic interactions in this species.

The dataset comprises geolocalised records of dive and surface interval durations, light level and temperature of the seawater during the post-resting and post-moulting tracks of 13 immature southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina . It describes an unpublished open access version of the original data with records of light level and temperature of the water column using the Darwin Core standard (DwC) through ArOBIS, guaranteeing compliance with the FAIR principles, encompassing a wide time scale (2005, 2006 and 2007) and geographic range in the South Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (South West [-58.75, -81.29], North East [-37.60, -28.65]). Seals were simultaneously equipped with affordable light–temperature loggers (LTLs) and satellite tags. The LTLs recorded light level and temperature of the water column at 30-s intervals during dives and light–time records were applied to estimate dive parameters of diurnal records from 06:00 to 17:00 h, since movements up and down the water column are reflected by changes in light level. For that, the minimum light level reached at the surface of a dive was determined experimentally with diurnal dive simulations at sea using the LTLs devices before deployment. The dataset also includes variation of light and temperature of records between 17:00 to 06:00 h. Data can be used to identify temperature changes associated with seawater masses as drivers of the distribution of other taxa of interest and variation of light level in the seawater (light attenuation) could be linked to concentrations of phytoplankton assemblages as an index of primary productivity. This dataset provides unpublished data of the duration of dives and surface intervals and associated records of light level and temperature variations along the movements throughout the seawater of 13 immature southern elephant seals in the Southern Hemisphere. The location data were generated by satellite tags and the light and temperature data were recorded with light-temperature loggers (LTLs), both devices deployed on individuals simultaneously and uploaded following the Darwin Core standard and compliance with the FAIR principles.

Direct measures of body mass of marine mammals are logistically complicated to obtain even for pinnipeds. An alternative method for mass estimation based on 3D imaging technology and automated processing algorithms, was tested in southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina). Two models of artificial neural networks (ANN)-nonlinear neural network and self-organizing maps-were trained to compute the volume and to estimate the mass of the digital models, previously obtained by scanning individuals with an infrared light sensor. Body mass estimates were as accurate (mean % error = 4.4) as estimates in previous photogrammetry studies in southern elephant seals and the mass predictive ability of the trained ANN was higher (99% of the variance explained) than other predictive models using photogrammetry in pinniped studies. While this method has proven to produce accurate body mass estimates, it also overcame some of the constraints of other indirect techniques, avoiding animal disturbance caused by physical restraint or chemical immobilization, minimizing risks, and capitalizing on the time working in the field. The results of these estimations were promising, which shows that the proposed methodology can provide adequate results with lower logistic and computational requirements.

The foraging strategies of gestating female elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) from Peninsula Valdes, Patagonia, were assessed by analyzing the values of stable isotopes of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) from whiskers of 60 weanlings as a proxy for maternal spatial niche utilization. The data were combined with isotopic values and at-sea satellite locations of juvenile seals and adult female satellite tracks to provide classifications of the likely foraging strategies of the mothers of the studied pups. Based on at-sea locations during the austral summer, females foraged in oceanic waters while juveniles foraged both in neritic and in oceanic habitats. Weanling isotopic values (n = 60 pups) ranged from -19.9 to -14.8‰ for C and from 10.6 to 18.9‰ for N. The degree of variation of spatial niche distribution exhibited individual patterns of habitat use over time and revealed significant intra-population differences. Ten percent of the individuals exhibited neritic maternal foraging (δ13C = -15.6 ± 0.5‰, δ15N = 17.3 ± 1.1‰) and high consistency, thus suggesting specialization (%CV δ13C values = 0.3 to 2.2), while 90% of the individuals exhibited oceanic maternal foraging (δ13C = -17.9 ± 0.7‰, δ15N = 12.4 ± 0.5). Additionally, oceanic maternal foraging could be further classified to distinguish broader individual variability: 58% were specialists (%CV = 0.03 to 2.2), 30% were intermediate specialists-generalists (%CV = 2.5 to 4.5), and 12% were generalists (%CV = 5.0 to 7.3). The prevailing strategy for females was oceanic foraging as exhibited by location at sea and the greater extent of oceanic habitats (88%) potentially available for foraging. At the population level, the existence of both alternate foraging strategies and high individual variability exhibited by gestating females in a high-quality foraging area such as the oceanic environment of the Argentine Basin may confer an ecological edge to these females to succeed in a less predictable (although fairly rich) environment, thus influencing population trends.

The dataset contains 2007 records of occurrence of 39 species of fish and 2 species of squid distributed on the Patagonian continental shelf and slope. This dataset describes a new and revised version of the original data published through OBIS with individual morphometrics. Specimens are representative of pelagic, demersal, demersal-pelagic, demersal-benthic and benthic habits and they were collected by commercial fishing vessels in autumn (May-June, 2001, 51 catches), winter (July-August, 2001, 38 catches) and summer (January-February, 2002, 112 catches). The sampling was carried out with bottom trawls at a depth range of 73-370 m. The survey was located between 39°-52°S and 55°-65°W.

Loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta use a wide variety of foraging strategies, and some populations forage in sub-optimal habitats. Different foraging strategies may not be equivalent in terms of fitness and may result in differences in adult body size and clutch size among populations. Accordingly, we tested whether differences in clutch size among rookeries in the Mediterranean Sea are related to differential use of foraging grounds of contrasting productivity. Stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen of turtle hatchlings from 8 Mediterranean rookeries were used to characterise the foraging grounds of their mothers. Clutch size was also studied in each rookery to assess reproductive output linked to foraging ground productivity. According to stable isotope ratios, most of the females nesting in the considered rookeries foraged in the southern Ionian Sea. The highly productive Adriatic/northern Ionian Sea region was mainly used by females nesting in western Greece. The explanation for these patterns might be linked to water circulation patterns and drifting trajectories followed during developmental migrations, which might determine individual knowledge on the location of productive foraging patches. Average clutch size in each rookery was positively correlated to the proportion of females accessing highly productive areas such as the Adriatic/northern Ionian Sea. This has a strong influence on reproductive output, and hence females using the most productive foraging grounds had the largest clutch sizes.

A foraging dichotomy among sexually mature females has been reported for several populations of loggerhead sea turtles, where large adult females forage primarily in neritic habitats and smaller adult females forage primarily in oceanic habitats. The prevalence of neritic foragers has been considered a consequence of much higher food availability in neritic foraging grounds than in oceanic habitats. However, previous satellite tracking suggested that oceanic foraging is prevalent among the adult females in Cape Verde. We used stable isotopes to assess the actual proportion of neritic and oceanic females in this population and used carapace length, clutch size and egg volume to assess differences in their fitness. Stable isotope ratios confirm that the adult female population in Cape Verde is dominated by oceanic foragers that avoid the oligo-trophic region west of the archipelago. The proportion of oceanic and neritic foragers did not depart significantly from that expected if turtles settled opportunistically between the archipelago and mainland Africa at the end of their developmental migration, without any preference for the continental shelf. However, adult neritic foragers had a higher fitness, as revealed by larger carapace length and clutch size. Furthermore, they were older than adult oceanic foragers, thus indicating that some animals shifted from oceanic to neritic habitats with age, most likely due to a higher accumulated probability of detecting the African shelf over time. In conclusion, most of the females nesting in Cape Verde do not select the best available foraging grounds, but settle opportunistically in the highly productive area between the archipelago and Africa when they return from their developmental migration.

The shallow Patagonian Shelf off Península Valdés limits the dive depth of southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) to <100 m, an unusual circumstance for this deep-diving species. Beyond the shelf water depths of >1,000 m enable the seals to forage deeper and use the entire water column. We compared the diving pattern of 10 juveniles instrumented with light–temperature loggers to determine if diving effort, measured as dive durations longer than the estimated aerobic dive limit, differed between on-shelf and off-shelf waters. The productive Patagonian Shelf, an environment where juveniles showed lower diving effort, also was used commonly by older seals, which likely displaced juveniles off-shelf periodically, where they exhibited increased diving effort.

Marine Mammal ScienceVolume 26, Issue 2 p. 430-442 Evidence of demersal foraging from stable isotope analysis of juvenile elephant seals from Patagonia Elena B. Eder, Elena B. Eder Centro Nacional Patagonico–CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, Puerto Madryn 9120, Chubut, Argentina E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorMirtha N. Lewis, Mirtha N. Lewis Centro Nacional Patagonico–CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, Puerto Madryn 9120, Chubut, Argentina E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorClaudio Campagna, Claudio Campagna Centro Nacional Patagonico–CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, Puerto Madryn 9120, Chubut, ArgentinaandWildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York 10460, U.S.A.Search for more papers by this authorPaul L. Koch, Paul L. Koch Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, U.S.A.Search for more papers by this author Elena B. Eder, Elena B. Eder Centro Nacional Patagonico–CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, Puerto Madryn 9120, Chubut, Argentina E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorMirtha N. Lewis, Mirtha N. Lewis Centro Nacional Patagonico–CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, Puerto Madryn 9120, Chubut, Argentina E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorClaudio Campagna, Claudio Campagna Centro Nacional Patagonico–CONICET, Boulevard Brown 2825, Puerto Madryn 9120, Chubut, ArgentinaandWildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York 10460, U.S.A.Search for more papers by this authorPaul L. Koch, Paul L. Koch Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California 95064, U.S.A.Search for more papers by this author First published: 15 April 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2009.00347.xCitations: 21Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume26, Issue2April 2010Pages 430-442 RelatedInformation