IMIS - Marine Research Groups

This team has assembled tracking data shared by 38 biologists from 11 different countries to accumulate the largest animal tracking database in the world, containing information from 15 species, containing over 3,400 individual animals and almost 2.5 million at-sea locations. Analysing a dataset of this size brings its own challenges and the team is developing new and innovative statistical approaches to integrate these complex data. When complete RAATD will provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, help predict the future of top predator distribution and help with spatial management planning.
The dataset is restricted to the Southern Ocean, in a broad sense. All species considered in this dataset have circumpolar distributions with a longitudinal range spanning 180°W to 180°E. The species breed either on the coast of the Antarctic continent or on the sub-Antarctic islands to the north.
Seventeen species of meso- and top predators were included in the dataset, five marine mammals (one baleen whale, one otariid and three phocid seals) and twelve seabirds (five penguin, five albatross, and two petrels). The species cover a diverse range of ecological niches and life history traits and include dietary specialists (e.g. crabeater seals), deep divers (e.g. elephant seal Mirounga leonina and emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri), wide ranging, highly migratory species (e.g. wandering albatross Diomedea exulans), nearshore foragers (e.g. Adélie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae) and capital (e.g. Weddell seal) versus income (e.g. Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella) breeders.