Publications by authors named "Justin A Crawford"
Article Synopsis
- Ice-associated seals depend on sea ice for essential activities such as pupping and resting, particularly during the spring months when the ice starts to melt.
- Climate change poses a significant threat to these seals by diminishing the habitat they rely on, making accurate population abundance estimations increasingly necessary for monitoring their conservation status.
- The study utilized satellite-linked bio-loggers to analyze seal behavior, focusing on bearded, ribbon, and spotted seals, to provide data that helps correct aerial survey counts by accounting for those seals that are in water and not visible.
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are experiencing loss of sea ice habitats used to access their marine mammal prey. Simultaneously, ocean warming is changing ecosystems that support marine mammal populations. The interactive effects of sea ice and prey are not well understood yet may explain spatial-temporal variation in the response of polar bears to sea ice loss.
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- Continued warming in the Arctic and loss of sea ice threaten the conservation of ringed seals, emphasizing the need for better understanding of their ecology to inform management.
- Researchers tracked 17 ringed seals using satellite transmitters across summers from 2011 to 2016, revealing their movements between the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas, with critical foraging dives to the seafloor.
- Seasonal patterns showed that seals prefer to haul out at night in cooler months, transitioning to daytime in late spring, while seals affected by a past mortality event showed notable differences in behavior and physical traits.