Characterizing habitat suitability for a central‐place forager in a dynamic marine environment

Characterizing habitat suitability for a marine predator requires an understanding of the environmental heterogeneity and variability over the range in which a population moves during a particular life cycle. Female California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are central‐place foragers and are par...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and evolution 2018-03, Vol.8 (5), p.2788-2801
Main Authors: Briscoe, Dana K., Fossette, Sabrina, Scales, Kylie L., Hazen, Elliott L., Bograd, Steven J., Maxwell, Sara M., McHuron, Elizabeth A., Robinson, Patrick W., Kuhn, Carey, Costa, Daniel P., Crowder, Larry B., Lewison, Rebecca L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Aquatic habitats
California current system
California sea lion
distribution
dynamic habitat
El Nino
Females
Foraging habitats
Habitat selection
Habitats
Life cycle engineering
Life cycles
Life history
Marine environment
Marine mammals
Oceanography
Original Research
Physical oceanography
Population dynamics
Prey
Provisioning
Remote sensing
Satellite tracking
Sea lions
telemetry
Variability
Vortices
Winter
Zalophus californianus
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Summary:Characterizing habitat suitability for a marine predator requires an understanding of the environmental heterogeneity and variability over the range in which a population moves during a particular life cycle. Female California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are central‐place foragers and are particularly constrained while provisioning their young. During this time, habitat selection is a function of prey availability and proximity to the rookery, which has important implications for reproductive and population success. We explore how lactating females may select habitat and respond to environmental variability over broad spatial and temporal scales within the California Current System. We combine near‐real‐time remotely sensed satellite oceanography, animal tracking data (n = 72) from November to February over multiple years (2003–2009) and Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) to determine the probability of sea lion occurrence based on environmental covariates. Results indicate that sea lion presence is associated with cool (
ISSN:2045-7758
2045-7758
DOI:10.1002/ece3.3827