Description

PURPOSE: Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) rely on sea ice as habitat throughout their life history and inhabit a broad latitudinal range with diverse sea-ice conditions. Anthropogenic climate warming is triggering poleward species redistributions, highlighting the importance of understanding how species distributions and abundance vary along latitudinal gradients. Using ringed seals as a model species, the purpose was to estimate density via aerial surveys along a latitudinal gradient in the eastern Canadian Arctic to investigate latitudinal trends in the ringed seals response to regional variation in sea-ice conditions. DESCRIPTION: Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) rely on sea ice as habitat throughout their life history and inhabit a broad latitudinal range with diverse sea-ice conditions, making them a model species to study patterns in density along a spatial-environmental gradient. We estimated the density of ringed seals from systematic aerial surveys along a latitudinal gradient in the eastern Canadian Arctic to investigate latitudinal trends in the ringed seals response to regional variation in sea-ice conditions. Ringed seals exhibited similar densities at lower and intermediate latitudes, while higher latitudes displayed an order of magnitude lower ringed seal density. This shift is concurrent with the transition in ice conditions from predominantly first-year ice at lower latitudes to primarily multiyear ice at higher latitudes. These findings indicate that the variation in icescapes across the ringed seal’s vast range influences their density. The shift in sea-ice conditions may also have consequences for biological productivity that supports their diet. Our results highlight a likely non-uniform response of ringed seals to ongoing sea-ice recession across the Arctic.

Resources

Name	Format	Description	Link
Carlyleetal_VariationInRSDensity_rssightings.csv	CSV		https://api-proxy.edh-cde.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/322fc826-d755-11ef-88e2-5d0a2a9fd0c5/attachments/Carlyleetal_VariationInRSDensity_rssightings.csv
Carlyleetal_VariationInRSDensity_Table1.csv	CSV		https://api-proxy.edh-cde.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/322fc826-d755-11ef-88e2-5d0a2a9fd0c5/attachments/Carlyleetal_VariationInRSDensity_Table1.csv
Data_Dictionary_Dictionnaire_de_données.pdf	PDF		https://api-proxy.edh-cde.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/322fc826-d755-11ef-88e2-5d0a2a9fd0c5/attachments/Data_Dictionary_Dictionnaire_de_donn%C3%A9es.pdf
Supplementary_Citation_List_Liste_de_citation_supplémentaire.pdf	PDF		https://api-proxy.edh-cde.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/catalogue/records/322fc826-d755-11ef-88e2-5d0a2a9fd0c5/attachments/Supplementary_Citation_List_Liste_de_citation_suppl%C3%A9mentaire.pdf
open_data_donnees_ouvertes/variation_ringed_seal_density_along_sea_ice_conditions	Ersi REST		https://egisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/open_data_donnees_ouvertes/variation_ringed_seal_density_along_sea_ice_conditions/MapServer
open_data_donnees_ouvertes/variation_ringed_seal_density_along_sea_ice_conditions	Ersi REST		https://egisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/open_data_donnees_ouvertes/variation_ringed_seal_density_along_sea_ice_conditions/MapServer

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