L’éléphant de mer, un phoque d’exception pour les études océanographiques et d’écologie marine
Résumé
Seals are used ta collect in-situ measurements of temperature, salinity, fluorescence and light that are performed along seals' tracks during their dives completing surface satellite observations. Information on sea states, wind direction and strength are also sampled. Simultaneously, biological information on nekton and on the concentrations of seals' preys are also collected ta investigate how oceanographic conditions influence the distribution of biological fields at a very fine spatial scale. Today, southern seals represent a major component of the Southern Ocean observing system. Future work will focus on the assessment of intermediate trophic levels. ln ecophysiology we will be investigating elephant seal hypo-metabolism during dives while in oceanography we will investigate dense water formation in polynias.