The seasonal evolution of shelf water masses around Bouvetøya, a sub-Antarctic island in the mid-Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, determined from an instrumented southern elephant seal

Polar research

Andrew D. Lowther¹ 

[1] Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, PO Box 6606 Langnes, NO-9296 Tromsø, NorwayCorrespondence

关键词: Biotelemetry;    diving;    elephant seal;    oceanography;    marine predators;    CTD-SRDL.;   

DOI  :  10.3402/polar.v35.28278

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

Our study makes use of a fortuitous oceanographic data set collected around the remote sub-Antarctic island of Bouvetøya by a conductivity–temperature–depth recorder (CTD) integrated with a satellite-relayed data logger deployed on an adult female southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) to describe the seasonal evolution of the western shelf waters. The instrumented seal remained in waters over the shelf for 259 days, collecting an average of 2.6 (±0.06) CTD profiles per day, providing hydrographic data encompassing the late austral summer and the entire winter. These data document the thermal stratification of the upper water layer due to summer surface heating of the previous year's Antarctic Surface Water, giving way to a cold subsurface layer at about 100 m as the austral winter progressed, with a concomitant increase in salinity of the upper layer. Upper Circumpolar Deep Water was detected at a depth of approximately 200 m along the western shelf of Bouvetøya throughout the year. These oceanographi...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC