Ecoregional and temporal dynamics of dugong habitat use in a complex coral reef lagoon ecosystem
Derville, Solene, Cleguer, Christophe, and Garrigue, Claire (2022) Ecoregional and temporal dynamics of dugong habitat use in a complex coral reef lagoon ecosystem. Scientific Reports, 12. 552.
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Abstract
Mobile marine species display complex and nonstationary habitat use patterns that require understanding to design effective management measures. In this study, the spatio-temporal habitat use dynamics of the vulnerable dugong (Dugong dugon) were modelled from 16 satellite-tagged individuals in the coral reef lagoonal ecosystems of New Caledonia, South Pacific. Dugong residence time was calculated along the interpolated tracks (9371 hourly positions) to estimate intensity of use in three contrasting ecoregions, previously identified through hierarchical clustering of lagoon topographic characteristics. Across ecoregions, differences were identified in dugong spatial intensity of use of shallow waters, deeper lagoon waters and the fore-reef shelf outside the barrier reef. Maps of dugong intensity of use were predicted from these ecological relationships and validated with spatial density estimates derived from aerial surveys conducted for population assessment. While high correlation was found between the two datasets, our study extended the spatial patterns of dugong distribution obtained from aerial surveys across the diel cycle, especially in shallow waters preferentially used by dugongs at night/dusk during high tide. This study has important implications for dugong conservation and illustrates the potential benefits of satellite tracking and dynamic habitat use modelling to inform spatial management of elusive and mobile marine mammals.
| Item ID: | 73357 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2022. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Jun 2022 06:25 |
| FoR Codes: | 31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3109 Zoology > 310901 Animal behaviour @ 40% 41 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 4104 Environmental management > 410404 Environmental management @ 60% |
| SEO Codes: | 18 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT > 1805 Marine systems and management > 180507 Rehabilitation or conservation of marine environments @ 100% |
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