Epizoic bryozoans, horseshoe crabs, and other mobile benthic substrates

Bulletin of Marine Science582368-384BMRS

Temporal and spatial activity-associated energy partitioning in free-swimming sea snakes

1. Partitioning energy between critical basal functions and activity-associated behaviours is aprimary determinant of animal survival. Consequently, habitat selection is likely to be drivenby the efficiency with which resources can be acquired from a heterogeneous energylandscape. 2. Determining how energy partitioning is achieved across temporal and spatial scales isparticularly challenging in aquatic animals due to the logistical limitations in estimating fieldmetabolic rates (FMR) while simultaneously examining habitat choice. 3. Here, accelerometry telemetry and bimodal respirometry were used to correlate vectorialdynamic body acceleration (VeDBA) with oxygen consumption rates ( 2) of sea snakes(Hydrophis curtus and H. elegans) across an ecologically-relevant temperature range.Subsequently, VeDBA of free-roaming snakes was used to estimate activity-associated FMRwithin a near-shore environment over diel, seasonal and spatial scales. 4. Diel changes in activity explained short-term patterns in FMR, whereas seasonal changes inwater temperature drove long-term patterns. Spatial analyses demonstrated that activity associatedFMR was elevated in productive seagrass and mudflat habitats, indicative of aconcentration of foraging efforts. 5. Our findings illustrate for the first time how sea snakes partition activity-associated FMRacross time and space, providing an approach by which we can monitor the impacts of, andvulnerabilities to, natural and anthropogenic disturbances like warming and trawl fisheries