In-situ observations using tagged animals

Marine mammals help gather information on some of the harshest environments on the planet, through the use of miniaturized ocean sensors glued on their fur. Since 2004, hundreds of diving marine animals, mainly Antarctic and Arctic seals, have been fitted with a new generation of Argos tags developed by the Sea Mammal Research Unit of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, UK. These tags investigate the at-sea ecology of these animals while simultaneously collecting valuable oceanographic data. Some of the study species travel thousands of kilometres continuously diving to great depths (up to 2100 m). The resulting data are now freely available to the global scientific community at http://www.meop.net. Despite great progress in their reliability and data accuracy, the current generation of loggers while approaching standard ARGO quality specifications have yet to match them. Yet, improvements are underway; they involve updating the technology, implementing a more systematic phase of calibration and taking benefit of the recently acquired knowledge on the dynamical response of sensors. Together these efforts are rapidly transforming animal tagging into one of the most important sources of oceanographic data in polar regions and in many coastal areas.Publisher PDFNon peer reviewe

Predator-derived bioregions in the Southern Ocean: Characteristics, drivers and representation in marine protected areas

Multiple initiatives have called for large-scale representative networks of marine protected areas (MPAs). MPAs should be ecologically representative to be effective, but in large, remote regions this can be difficult to quantify and assess. We present a novel bioregionalization for the Southern Ocean, which uses the modelled circumpolar habitat importance of 17 marine bird and mammal species. The habitat-use of these predators indicates biodiversity patterns that require representation in Southern Ocean conservation and management planning. In the predator habitat importance predictions, we identified 17 statistical clusters, falling into four larger groups. We characterized and contrasted these clusters based on their predator, prey and oceanographic characteristics. Under the existing Southern Ocean MPA network, some clusters fall short of 10 % representation, yet others meet or exceed these targets. Implementation of currently proposed MPAs can in some cases contribute to meeting even 30 % spatial coverage conservation targets. However, the effectiveness of mixed-use versus no-take MPAs should be taken into consideration, since some clusters are not adequately represented by no-take MPAs. These results, combined with previous studies in the Southern Ocean, can help inform the continued design, implementation, and evaluation of a representative system of MPAs for Southern Ocean conservation and management

The retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets and accompanying syntheses provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, support modelling of predator distributions under future climate scenarios and create inputs that can be incorporated into decision making processes by management authorities. In this data paper, we present the compiled tracking data from research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. The data are publicly available through biodiversity.aq and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. The archive includes tracking data from over 70 contributors across 12 national Antarctic programs, and includes data from 17 predator species, 4060 individual animals, and over 2.9 million observed locations

Effects of Hydrographic Variability on the Spatial, Seasonal and Diel Diving Patterns of Southern Elephant Seals in the Eastern Weddell Sea

Weddell Sea hydrography and circulation is driven by influx of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) at its eastern margin. Entrainment and upwelling of this high-nutrient, oxygen-depleted water mass within the Weddell Gyre also supports the mesopelagic ecosystem within the gyre and the rich benthic community along the Antarctic shelf. We used Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Satellite Relay Data Loggers (CTD-SRDLs) to examine the importance of hydrographic variability, ice cover and season on the movements and diving behavior of southern elephant seals in the eastern Weddell Sea region during their overwinter feeding trips from Bouvetøya. We developed a model describing diving depth as a function of local time of day to account for diel variation in diving behavior. Seals feeding in pelagic ice-free waters during the summer months displayed clear diel variation, with daytime dives reaching 500-1500 m and night-time targeting of the subsurface temperature and salinity maxima characteristic of CDW around 150–300 meters. This pattern was especially clear in the Weddell Cold and Warm Regimes within the gyre, occurred in the ACC, but was absent at the Dronning Maud Land shelf region where seals fed benthically. Diel variation was almost absent in pelagic feeding areas covered by winter sea ice, where seals targeted deep layers around 500–700 meters. Thus, elephant seals appear to switch between feeding strategies when moving between oceanic regimes or in response to seasonal environmental conditions. While they are on the shelf, they exploit the locally-rich benthic ecosystem, while diel patterns in pelagic waters in summer are probably a response to strong vertical migration patterns within the copepod-based pelagic food web. Behavioral flexibility that permits such switching between different feeding strategies may have important consequences regarding the potential for southern elephant seals to adapt to variability or systematic changes in their environment resulting from climate change

Marine mammals exploring the oceans pole to pole

Polar oceans are poorly monitored despite the important role they play in regulating Earth’s climate system. Marine mammals equipped with biologging devices are now being used to fill the data gaps in these logistically difficult to sample regions. Since 2002, instrumented animals have been generating exceptionally large data sets of oceanographic CTD casts (>500,000 profiles), which are now freely available to the scientific community through the MEOP data portal (http://meop.net). MEOP (Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole) is a consortium of international researchers dedicated to sharing animal-derived data and knowledge about the polar oceans. Collectively, MEOP demonstrates the power and cost-effectiveness of using marine mammals as data-collection platforms that can dramatically improve the ocean observing system for biological and physical oceanographers. Here, we review the MEOP program and database to bring it to the attention of the international community.http://www.tos.org/oceanographyam2017Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

The retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets and accompanying syntheses provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, support modelling of predator distributions under future climate scenarios and create inputs that can be incorporated into decision making processes by management authorities. In this data paper, we present the compiled tracking data from research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. The data are publicly available through biodiversity.aq and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. The archive includes tracking data from over 70 contributors across 12 national Antarctic programs, and includes data from 17 predator species, 4060 individual animals, and over 2.9 million observed locations.Supplementary Figure S1: Filtered location data (black) and tag deployment locations (red) for each species. Maps are Lambert Azimuthal projections extending from 90° S to 20° S.Supplementary Table S1: Names and coordinates of the major study sites in the Southern Ocean and on the Antarctic Continent where tracking devices were deployed on the selected species (indicated by their 4-letter codes in the last column).Online Table 1: Description of fields (column names) in the metadata and data files.Supranational committees and organisations including the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Life Science Group and BirdLife International. National institutions and foundations, including but not limited to Argentina (Dirección Nacional del Antártico), Australia (Australian Antarctic program; Australian Research Council; Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation Inc., IMOS is a national collaborative research infrastructure, supported by the Australian Government and operated by a consortium of institutions as an unincorporated joint venture, with the University of Tasmania as Lead Agent), Belgium (Belgian Science Policy Office, EU Lifewatch ERIC), Brazil (Brazilian Antarctic Programme; Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq/MCTI) and CAPES), France (Agence Nationale de la Recherche; Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB; www.fondationbiodiversite.fr) in the context of the CESAB project “RAATD”; Fondation Total; Institut Paul-Emile Victor; Programme Zone Atelier de Recherches sur l’Environnement Antarctique et Subantarctique; Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises), Germany (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg - Institute for Advanced Study), Italy (Italian National Antarctic Research Program; Ministry for Education University and Research), Japan (Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition; JSPS Kakenhi grant), Monaco (Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco), New Zealand (Ministry for Primary Industries - BRAG; Pew Charitable Trusts), Norway (Norwegian Antarctic Research Expeditions; Norwegian Research Council), Portugal (Foundation for Science and Technology), South Africa (Department of Environmental Affairs; National Research Foundation; South African National Antarctic Programme), UK (Darwin Plus; Ecosystems Programme at the British Antarctic Survey; Natural Environment Research Council; WWF), and USA (U.S. AMLR Program of NOAA Fisheries; US Office of Polar Programs).http://www.nature.com/sdataam2021Mammal Research Institut

In Vitro Generation of Vascular Wall-Resident Multipotent Stem Cells of Mesenchymal Nature from Murine Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Summary: The vascular wall (VW) serves as a niche for mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In general, tissue-specific stem cells differentiate mainly to the tissue type from which they derive, indicating that there is a certain code or priming within the cells as determined by the tissue of origin. Here we report the in vitro generation of VW-typical MSCs from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), based on a VW-MSC-specific gene code. Using a lentiviral vector expressing the so-called Yamanaka factors, we reprogrammed tail dermal fibroblasts from transgenic mice containing the GFP gene integrated into the Nestin-locus (NEST-iPSCs) to facilitate lineage tracing after subsequent MSC differentiation. A lentiviral vector expressing a small set of recently identified human VW-MSC-specific HOX genes then induced MSC differentiation. This direct programming approach successfully mediated the generation of VW-typical MSCs with classical MSC characteristics, both in vitro and in vivo. : In this article, Klein and colleagues show that iPSCs generated from skin fibroblasts of transgenic mice carrying a GFP gene under the control of the endogenous Nestin promoter to facilitate lineage tracing (NEST-iPSCs) can be directly programmed toward mouse vascular wall-typical multipotent mesenchymal stem cells (VW-MSC) by ectopic lentiviral expression of a previously defined VW-MSC-specific HOX code. Keywords: vascular wall-derived mesenchymal stem cells, HOX gene, induced pluripotent stem cells, direct programming, nesti

Secular environmental precursors to Early Toarcian (Jurassic) extreme climate changes

International audienceThe Early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE), about 183 myr ago, was a global event of environmental and carbon cycle perturbations, which deeply affected both marine biota and carbonate production. Nevertheless, the long-term environmental conditions prevailing prior to the main phase of marine extinction and carbonate production crisis remain poorly understood. Here we present a similar to 8 myr-long record of Early Pliensbachian-Middle Toarcian environmental changes from the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal, in order to address the long-term paleoclimatic evolution that ultimately led to carbonate production and biotic crises during the T-OAE. Paleotemperature estimates derived from the oxygen isotope compositions of well-reserved brachiopod shells from two different sections reveal a pronounced similar to 5 degrees C cooling in the Late Pliensbachian (margaritatus-spinatum ammonite Zones boundary). This cooling event is followed by a marked similar to 7-10 degrees C seawater warming in the Early Toarcian that, after a second cooling event in the mid-polymorphum Zone, culminates during the T-OAE. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) contents, the amount of nannofossil calcite and the mean size of the major pelagic carbonate producer Schizosphaerella, all largely covary with paleotemperatures, indicating a coupling between climatic conditions and both pelagic and neritic CaCO3 production. Furthermore, the cooling and warming episodes coincided with major marine regressions and transgressions, respectively, suggesting that the growth and decay of ice caps may have exerted a strong control on sea-level fluctuations throughout the studied time interval. This revised chronology of environmental changes shows important similarities with Neogene and Paleozoic episodes of deglacial black shale formation, and thus prompts the reevaluation of ice sheet dynamics as a possible agent of Mesozoic events of extinction and organic-rich sedimentation. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The SCAR Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data

The SCAR Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data project is a multi-species synthesis of movement data of Antarctic predators intended to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These areas are defined as being used by multiple air-breathing predator species and therefore indicative of high biodiversity and abundance of lower trophic organisms. The study therefore aims to provide: (i) a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, (ii) facilitate future projections of predator distributions under varying climate regimes, and (iii) provide input into spatial planning decisions for management and conservation authorities. Since April 1 2016, RAATD has accumulated almost 3 million at-sea locations from 17 species of seabirds and marine mammals, using GPS, light level geolocation, and ARGOS satellite tracking devices. Importantly, these data come from 49 separate data contributors from 10 countries, who have agreed to share their hard won data with the Antarctic tracking community. The analytical framework of RAATD consists of (i) developing a habitat utilization model for each species, (ii) application of this model towards global predictions of important habitat based on colony locations (where appropriate) for that species, and then (iii) compilation of these species-specific predictions to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. We will present an overview of the dataset and highlight some of the analytical challenges and successes involved in our multi-species synthesis