Santos Mercedes

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Santos
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Mercedes
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  • Article
    Marine ecosystem assessment for the Southern Ocean: birds and marine mammals in a changing climate
    (Frontiers Media, 2020-11-04) Bestley, Sophie ; Ropert-Coudert, Yan ; Bengtson Nash, Susan ; Brooks, Cassandra M. ; Cotté, Cédric ; Dewar, Meagan ; Friedlaender, Ari S. ; Jackson, Jennifer A. ; Labrousse, Sara ; Lowther, Andrew D. ; McMahon, Clive R. ; Phillips, Richard A. ; Pistorius, Pierre ; Puskic, Peter S. ; de Almeida Reis, Ana Olívia ; Reisinger, Ryan ; Santos, Mercedes ; Tarszisz, Esther ; Tixier, Paul ; Trathan, Phil N. ; Wege, Mia ; Wienecke, Barbara
    The massive number of seabirds (penguins and procellariiformes) and marine mammals (cetaceans and pinnipeds) – referred to here as top predators – is one of the most iconic components of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. They play an important role as highly mobile consumers, structuring and connecting pelagic marine food webs and are widely studied relative to other taxa. Many birds and mammals establish dense breeding colonies or use haul-out sites, making them relatively easy to study. Cetaceans, however, spend their lives at sea and thus aspects of their life cycle are more complicated to monitor and study. Nevertheless, they all feed at sea and their reproductive success depends on the food availability in the marine environment, hence they are considered useful indicators of the state of the marine resources. In general, top predators have large body sizes that allow for instrumentation with miniature data-recording or transmitting devices to monitor their activities at sea. Development of scientific techniques to study reproduction and foraging of top predators has led to substantial scientific literature on their population trends, key biological parameters, migratory patterns, foraging and feeding ecology, and linkages with atmospheric or oceanographic dynamics, for a number of species and regions. We briefly summarize the vast literature on Southern Ocean top predators, focusing on the most recent syntheses. We also provide an overview on the key current and emerging pressures faced by these animals as a result of both natural and human causes. We recognize the overarching impact that environmental changes driven by climate change have on the ecology of these species. We also evaluate direct and indirect interactions between marine predators and other factors such as disease, pollution, land disturbance and the increasing pressure from global fisheries in the Southern Ocean. Where possible we consider the data availability for assessing the status and trends for each of these components, their capacity for resilience or recovery, effectiveness of management responses, risk likelihood of key impacts and future outlook.
  • Preprint
    Stable isotope analyses of feather amino acids identify penguin migration strategies at ocean basin scales
    ( 2017-07) Polito, Michael J. ; Hinke, Jefferson T. ; Hart, Tom ; Santos, Mercedes ; Houghton, Leah A. ; Thorrold, Simon R.
    Identifying the at-sea distribution of wide ranging 20 marine predators is critical to understanding their ecology. Advances in electronic tracking devices and intrinsic biogeochemical markers have greatly improved our ability to track animal movements on ocean-wide scales. Here we show that, in combination with direct tracking, stable carbon isotope analysis of essential amino acids in tail feathers provides the ability to track the movement patterns of two, wide-ranging penguin species over ocean basin scales. In addition, we use this isotopic approach across multiple breeding colonies in the Scotia Arc to evaluate migration trends at a regional scale that would be logistically challenging using direct tracking alone.