Tracking apex marine predator movements in a.pdfVIP

LETTER doi:10.1038/nature10082 Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean B. A. Block1, I. D. Jonsen2, S. J. Jorgensen1, A. J. Winship2, S. A. Shaffer3, S. J. Bograd4, E. L. Hazen4, D. G. Foley4, G. A. Breed2,5, A.-L. Harrison5, J. E. Ganong1, A. Swithenbank1, M. Castleton1, H. Dewar6, B. R. Mate7, G. L. Shillinger1, K. M. Schaefer8, S. R. Benson9, M. J. Weise5, R. W. Henry5 D. P. Costa5 Pelagic marine predators face unprecedented challenges and uncer- tain futures. Overexploitation and climate variability impact the abundance and distribution of top predators in ocean ecosystems1–4. Improved understanding of ecological patterns, evolutionary con- straints and ecosystem function is critical for preventing extinctions, loss of biodiversity and disruption of ecosystem services. Recent advances in electronic tagging techniques have provided the capacity to observe the movements and long-distance migrations of animals in relation to ocean processes across a range of ecological scales5,6. Tagging of Pacific Predators, a field programme of the Census of Marine Life, deployed 4,306 tags on 23 species in the North Pacific Ocean, resulting in a tracking data set of unprecedented scale and species diversity that covers 265,386 tracking days from 2000 to 2009. Here we report migration pathways, link ocean features to multispecies hotspots and illustrate niche partitioning within and among congener guilds. Our results indicate that the California Current large marine ecosystem and the North Pacific transition zone attract and retain a diverse assemblage of marine vertebrates. Within the California Current large marine ecosystem, several predator guilds seasonally undertake north–south migrations that may be driven by oceanic processes, species-specific thermal tolerances and shifts in prey distributions. We identify critical habitats across multinational boundaries and show that top preda- tors exploit their environment in predictable ways, providing the founda