On the following subject:
"Characterisation of the feeding behaviour of the elephant seal Mirounga leonina and links with sub-mesoscale physical structures (1-10km) in the Southern Ocean: a functional data analysis approach".
Thesis supervisor: David Nerini, Associate Professor, AMU
Abstract
The consequences of climate change on an ecosystem as fragile as that of the Southern Ocean are difficult to estimate. Many questions remain unanswered about the relationship between biological and physical processes in this ocean. To answer these questions, electronic recorders are being deployed on marine predators, in particular southern elephant seals. These recorders sample a wide variety of physical, biological and behavioural data at high frequency, generating a considerable amount of information. All this data is said to be functional because it has one thing in common: it evolves along a continuum, whether spatial or temporal. The aim of this thesis is therefore twofold: to study the feeding activity of female elephant seals in relation to physical processes in the Southern Ocean, while integrating the functional nature of the data sampled. The results obtained show that (1) functional data analysis methods can identify a greater variety of diving behaviours in the defined biological sense than traditional methods (2) these functional approaches are better suited to data with variable sampling frequencies. (3) Functional data analysis also gives us access to the density of our individuals, a reflection of their body condition, and the diving behaviours they adopt have a real influence on this body condition, on different time scales. (4) There is a relationship between the characteristics of the water masses encountered by female elephant seals and the dives they make.
Key words: Functional data analysis, Southern Ocean, Southern elephants, Feeding behaviour, Physical processes.