Winter foraging ranges of Weddell seals: a pilot study to assess their role in the winter sea-ice zone and their potential as ocean sampling platforms

Created 23/06/2025

Updated 23/06/2025

Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 2695 See the link below for public details on this project. Variations in the winter extent of sea ice are thought to have profound effects on biological productivity, such as algal growth and the reproduction of Antarctic krill, with subsequent flow-on effects through the food web. This pilot study aims to measure the winter foraging patterns of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) as a first step in investigating their role in the winter sea-ice zone. Our specific objectives are to:

Obtain satellite tracks from a sample of adult female Weddell seals Collect diving behaviour (dive depth, duration and frequency) from a sub-set of these seals Collect high precision water temperature data from a subset of these seals

These data will enable us to assess the feasibility of including Weddell seals as a candidate species in a long-term study of winter sea-ice and predator performance. This project has now been merged into project number 2794 (ASAC_2794). It also contains data collected as part of project 1171 (ASAC_1171). The download file contains 13 Access Databases containing data from this project. An excel spreadsheet summarising the databases is also included. The data have also been loaded into the Australian Antarctic Data Centre's ARGOS tracking database. The database can be accessed at the provided URL.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Winter foraging ranges of Weddell seals: a pilot study to assess their role in the winter sea-ice zone and their potential as ocean sampling platforms
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/77656bd6-9939-4cda-9bbc-d0be5eb72588
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
metadata@aad.gov.au
Reference Period 01/10/2005 - 31/03/2007
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        77.0,
        -67.0
      ],
      [
        78.0,
        -67.0
      ],
      [
        78.0,
        -66.0
      ],
      [
        77.0,
        -66.0
      ],
      [
        77.0,
        -67.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Winter foraging ranges of Weddell seals: a pilot study to assess their role in the winter sea-ice zone and their potential as ocean sampling platforms". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/winter-foraging-ranges-of-weddell-seals-a-pilot-study-to-assess-their-role-in-the-winter-sea-ic