Talk Abstracts
Kay, W. P., Börger, L., Stringell, T. B., Wilson, R. P., Siebert, U., Bull, J. C. (2019) Tidal drivers of harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) fine-scale movement, behaviour and spatio-temporal distribution
Quantifying the effects of environmental conditions on the movement and behaviour of apex marine predators is crucial for understanding their ecology and informing conservation management. Recent evidence demonstrates that marine mammals utilise tidally energetic areas for important behaviours, such as foraging, however an understanding of how animals respond to changes in tidal conditions remains limited. This information is of crucial interest biologically to improve our understanding of the strategies used by marine predators to exploit energetically challenging conditions. It is also essential in an applied context, as the marine renewables industry target tidally energetic locations to install energy generating devices, raising concerns about potential impacts with marine mammals, such as collision risk. Between 2001 and 2007, 34 harbour seals Phoca vitulina (11 females, 23 males) were captured from three locations (Rømø, Denmark, and Lorenzenplate and Helgoland, Germany) in the Wadden Sea, an area boasting a high tidal range and fast water currents. Seals were instrumented with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and Time-Depth Recorders (TDRs) to record data on their free-ranging movements and behaviour. Here, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) framework, we model these data against high resolution tidal information provided by the German Hydrographic Institute to investigate the influence of changing tidal conditions on the movement, behaviour, and spatio-temporal distribution of seals. We quantify the probability for seals to transition between behavioural states, given tidal phase, and model how their movement speed and heading varies in response to the strength and direction of tidal currents. This framework enables us to quantify within- and between-individual variation, key to obtaining greater understanding of population-level responses. Our results offer novel insights into how apex marine predators utilise and respond to variations in tidal conditions, providing important information towards improving our general understanding of seal ecology and deriving implications for conservation management.
Kay, W. P. (2019) An introduction to policy making for ecologists
This workshop is aimed at all individuals with an interest in policy and will introduce the process of policymaking. We will cover a range of topics from the basics of understanding Parliament and Government, what policy is and why it matters, right through to the process of evidence-based policymaking with relevant examples. You will learn about where you can find more information and how you can get involved as biologists or ecologists in relevant policy activities. This workshop will have interactive elements including questions to the audience to stimulate discussion, and a chance to have a go yourself at providing policy advice. This workshop will be particularly useful for students considering a future career in policy from undergraduate through to PhD. All are welcome – please do join us and make sure to bring a pen and paper.
Kay, W. P. (2019) Hydrodynamic biologging tags and policy making
Having undertaken a Science Policy Internship at The Royal Society last summer, I will talk first about some of my highlights from this opportunity, and some of my involvements in other policy-related activities since, often through the British Ecological Society. Not surprisingly then, also my thesis is quite policy focussed, aimed at providing an evidence base for managing the impact of tidal energy structures on grey seal movements and behaviour along the Welsh coast. Crucial to these aims is the design and deployment of bio-logging devices to record animal behaviour, so I will present a chapter where I have led a collaboration between engineers and ecologists to use Computational Fluid Dynamics techniques borrowed from aerospace engineering to improve the design of bio-logging devices attached to seals.
Kay, W. P., Börger, L., Bull, J. C., Stringell, T., Wilson, R. P., Lock, K. (2018) Predicting spatio-temporal overlap risk of marine mammals with MRE installations - an example and method from Wales
Dispersal plays a fundamental role in population dynamics and gene flow. Natal dispersal typically covers vast areas and has large impacts on individual fitness and population structure. Despite their biological importance, little is known of the early movements of juveniles, which can represent up to half of the total population in long-lived species. This lack of knowledge is particularly pertinent to marine predators, such as grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), that move alone, with no information from their parents. Such information is key for understanding and predicting the responses of animals to climate change or anthropogenic activities. We present data from a historical mark-recapture record of grey seal pups in Wales. These records, spanning 1954-1971, document the early movements of 256 individuals from over 1300 originally marked. Movements are recorded for up to a year following weaning offering a novel understanding of natal dispersal. The squared displacement modelling method is used to quantify movement types and relate these to biological and demographic covariates; including sex, colony and environmental conditions. Results show that individuals cover huge ranges during their first few months at sea; travelling as far as Northern Ireland, France and Spain. There is large inter-individual variation and differences in strategies of pups from different colonies. By combining model predictions of dispersal with recent pup count data from three Welsh colonies, we derive the time window of spatio-temporal overlap risk with marine renewables. Our results can inform marine renewable energy industries to devise strategies to minimise risk for marine spatial planning.
Kay, W. P., Naumann, D. S., Wilson, R. P., Evans, B. J., Bowen, H. J., Withers, S., Bull, J. C., Stringell, T. B., Borger, L. (2018) From brick to bullet: Using Computational Fluid Dynamics to design bio-logging tags with minimal drag
Bio-logging devices are used across taxa in movement and behavioural ecology to record data from organisms without the need for direct observation. Bio-logging technology has become more sophisticated in recent years, but less progress has been made in assessing and reducing the impact of attaching these devices to animals, despite concerns about the ecological usefulness of the data collected, and implications for animal welfare. Existing guidelines typically focus on tag weight (e.g. the ‘3% rule’), yet ignores the impact of aero/hydrodynamic ‘drag’ that is likely to be more important for aerial and aquatic organisms. Designing tags for animals moving in fluid environments is, however, not trivial, because tagged animals are subject to forces in turbulent flow and the impact of drag is a function of the position of the tag on the animal and its form and dimensions. These problems are further compounded by the fact that the position of the tag on the animal determines the quantity and quality of data that are attainable. To efficiently tackle this complex optimisation problem, we take an interdisciplinary approach and use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to design tags with minimal impact. We use the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) as a model species to investigate the effects of several principal factors in telemetry design, including form, dimensions and tag position on the animal. We demonstrate that optimising a combination of these factors can substantially reduce drag and highlight the counter-intuitive result that smaller tags are not always better. We conclude that CFD can be successfully used for optimising tag design and outline a recently developed optimisation algorithm.
Kay, W. P., Wilson, R. P. (2015) Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) at sea: Exploring area usage in a central place forager
Central place foragers such as harbour seals inherently display tendencies to return to fixed areas for a variety of reasons including pupping, moulting and resting at their chosen haul-out sites. Despite this need to return to a fixed location, individuals regularly forage over extensive spatial and temporal scales, spending many days at sea and travelling upwards of 60km offshore. Optimal foraging theories suggest that these movements are not limitless and instead are restricted due to physiological and energetic demands. Classifying and quantifying areas of importance for these organisms is crucial, for both increasing our understanding of their general behaviours and identifying locations where anthropogenic activities, such as off-shore renewable energy or commercial fisheries, should be conducted with particular care. Visual tracking of marine mammals at sea is virtually impossible because they spend such a large majority of their time underwater. Most previous studies are primarily based on VHF and satellite-tracking telemetry, both of which have their limitations in accuracy and transmission. This research uses the recent, preferred technique of dead-reckoning, to fix GPS locations at 5 s intervals in order to examine the fine-scale movement of harbour seals at sea. From these data we hope to attain information about the paths that individuals take in the Wadden Sea, such as overall track lengths and track tortuosity to identify hotspots for foraging activity. The energetic costs of movement at sea are also considered in an effort to describe behaviours according to novel techniques.
Kay, W. P. (2014) The Undeserved Bend - Migraine with Aura and PFO
In this talk I will share my story of an undeserved spinal bend I experienced following a benign SCUBA dive to 35m. I will briefly outline the suspected cause of this decompression episode, a patent foramen ovale (PFO), and discuss its historical clinical links with migraine with aura. I will finish by highlighting strategies available for continuing to dive with a PFO and alternative, medical interventions that can be undergone in order to “fix” the issue.
Kay, W. P., Wilson, R. P. (2013) Investment for foraging: Examining the prey capture efficiency in the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
The energetic costs of foraging in diving marine vertebrates are often difficult to quantify, although the physical processes required to catch prey must involve a form of energy expenditure. Optimal foraging theory predicts that animals must maximise their net energy gain and hence, expense can be justified if the reward is high enough. Therefore, foraging behaviour, particularly with regards to numbers of prey caught, is important to understand. During the breeding season in late November, 2008 at Punta Norte, Argentina, the diving behaviour of 14 Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) was examined, using a combination of daily diary tags and GPS loggers, to identify the numbers of prey caught (using characteristic points of inflection in the dive profile as a proxy) and the energetic costs (using overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) as a proxy) during diving. Our results showed that total ODBA increased with increasing dive depth and as numbers of prey increased, reducing standard measures of ‘dive efficiency’ due to changes in the post-dive surface interval resting period. These results highlight that Magellanic penguins have to invest both time and energy into catching prey and hence selection pressures will favour those that can develop the most efficient optimal foraging strategy to maximise their energy acquisition whilst minimising energy expenditure.
Quantifying the effects of environmental conditions on the movement and behaviour of apex marine predators is crucial for understanding their ecology and informing conservation management. Recent evidence demonstrates that marine mammals utilise tidally energetic areas for important behaviours, such as foraging, however an understanding of how animals respond to changes in tidal conditions remains limited. This information is of crucial interest biologically to improve our understanding of the strategies used by marine predators to exploit energetically challenging conditions. It is also essential in an applied context, as the marine renewables industry target tidally energetic locations to install energy generating devices, raising concerns about potential impacts with marine mammals, such as collision risk. Between 2001 and 2007, 34 harbour seals Phoca vitulina (11 females, 23 males) were captured from three locations (Rømø, Denmark, and Lorenzenplate and Helgoland, Germany) in the Wadden Sea, an area boasting a high tidal range and fast water currents. Seals were instrumented with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and Time-Depth Recorders (TDRs) to record data on their free-ranging movements and behaviour. Here, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) framework, we model these data against high resolution tidal information provided by the German Hydrographic Institute to investigate the influence of changing tidal conditions on the movement, behaviour, and spatio-temporal distribution of seals. We quantify the probability for seals to transition between behavioural states, given tidal phase, and model how their movement speed and heading varies in response to the strength and direction of tidal currents. This framework enables us to quantify within- and between-individual variation, key to obtaining greater understanding of population-level responses. Our results offer novel insights into how apex marine predators utilise and respond to variations in tidal conditions, providing important information towards improving our general understanding of seal ecology and deriving implications for conservation management.
Kay, W. P. (2019) An introduction to policy making for ecologists
This workshop is aimed at all individuals with an interest in policy and will introduce the process of policymaking. We will cover a range of topics from the basics of understanding Parliament and Government, what policy is and why it matters, right through to the process of evidence-based policymaking with relevant examples. You will learn about where you can find more information and how you can get involved as biologists or ecologists in relevant policy activities. This workshop will have interactive elements including questions to the audience to stimulate discussion, and a chance to have a go yourself at providing policy advice. This workshop will be particularly useful for students considering a future career in policy from undergraduate through to PhD. All are welcome – please do join us and make sure to bring a pen and paper.
Kay, W. P. (2019) Hydrodynamic biologging tags and policy making
Having undertaken a Science Policy Internship at The Royal Society last summer, I will talk first about some of my highlights from this opportunity, and some of my involvements in other policy-related activities since, often through the British Ecological Society. Not surprisingly then, also my thesis is quite policy focussed, aimed at providing an evidence base for managing the impact of tidal energy structures on grey seal movements and behaviour along the Welsh coast. Crucial to these aims is the design and deployment of bio-logging devices to record animal behaviour, so I will present a chapter where I have led a collaboration between engineers and ecologists to use Computational Fluid Dynamics techniques borrowed from aerospace engineering to improve the design of bio-logging devices attached to seals.
Kay, W. P., Börger, L., Bull, J. C., Stringell, T., Wilson, R. P., Lock, K. (2018) Predicting spatio-temporal overlap risk of marine mammals with MRE installations - an example and method from Wales
Dispersal plays a fundamental role in population dynamics and gene flow. Natal dispersal typically covers vast areas and has large impacts on individual fitness and population structure. Despite their biological importance, little is known of the early movements of juveniles, which can represent up to half of the total population in long-lived species. This lack of knowledge is particularly pertinent to marine predators, such as grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), that move alone, with no information from their parents. Such information is key for understanding and predicting the responses of animals to climate change or anthropogenic activities. We present data from a historical mark-recapture record of grey seal pups in Wales. These records, spanning 1954-1971, document the early movements of 256 individuals from over 1300 originally marked. Movements are recorded for up to a year following weaning offering a novel understanding of natal dispersal. The squared displacement modelling method is used to quantify movement types and relate these to biological and demographic covariates; including sex, colony and environmental conditions. Results show that individuals cover huge ranges during their first few months at sea; travelling as far as Northern Ireland, France and Spain. There is large inter-individual variation and differences in strategies of pups from different colonies. By combining model predictions of dispersal with recent pup count data from three Welsh colonies, we derive the time window of spatio-temporal overlap risk with marine renewables. Our results can inform marine renewable energy industries to devise strategies to minimise risk for marine spatial planning.
Kay, W. P., Naumann, D. S., Wilson, R. P., Evans, B. J., Bowen, H. J., Withers, S., Bull, J. C., Stringell, T. B., Borger, L. (2018) From brick to bullet: Using Computational Fluid Dynamics to design bio-logging tags with minimal drag
Bio-logging devices are used across taxa in movement and behavioural ecology to record data from organisms without the need for direct observation. Bio-logging technology has become more sophisticated in recent years, but less progress has been made in assessing and reducing the impact of attaching these devices to animals, despite concerns about the ecological usefulness of the data collected, and implications for animal welfare. Existing guidelines typically focus on tag weight (e.g. the ‘3% rule’), yet ignores the impact of aero/hydrodynamic ‘drag’ that is likely to be more important for aerial and aquatic organisms. Designing tags for animals moving in fluid environments is, however, not trivial, because tagged animals are subject to forces in turbulent flow and the impact of drag is a function of the position of the tag on the animal and its form and dimensions. These problems are further compounded by the fact that the position of the tag on the animal determines the quantity and quality of data that are attainable. To efficiently tackle this complex optimisation problem, we take an interdisciplinary approach and use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to design tags with minimal impact. We use the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) as a model species to investigate the effects of several principal factors in telemetry design, including form, dimensions and tag position on the animal. We demonstrate that optimising a combination of these factors can substantially reduce drag and highlight the counter-intuitive result that smaller tags are not always better. We conclude that CFD can be successfully used for optimising tag design and outline a recently developed optimisation algorithm.
Kay, W. P., Wilson, R. P. (2015) Harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) at sea: Exploring area usage in a central place forager
Central place foragers such as harbour seals inherently display tendencies to return to fixed areas for a variety of reasons including pupping, moulting and resting at their chosen haul-out sites. Despite this need to return to a fixed location, individuals regularly forage over extensive spatial and temporal scales, spending many days at sea and travelling upwards of 60km offshore. Optimal foraging theories suggest that these movements are not limitless and instead are restricted due to physiological and energetic demands. Classifying and quantifying areas of importance for these organisms is crucial, for both increasing our understanding of their general behaviours and identifying locations where anthropogenic activities, such as off-shore renewable energy or commercial fisheries, should be conducted with particular care. Visual tracking of marine mammals at sea is virtually impossible because they spend such a large majority of their time underwater. Most previous studies are primarily based on VHF and satellite-tracking telemetry, both of which have their limitations in accuracy and transmission. This research uses the recent, preferred technique of dead-reckoning, to fix GPS locations at 5 s intervals in order to examine the fine-scale movement of harbour seals at sea. From these data we hope to attain information about the paths that individuals take in the Wadden Sea, such as overall track lengths and track tortuosity to identify hotspots for foraging activity. The energetic costs of movement at sea are also considered in an effort to describe behaviours according to novel techniques.
Kay, W. P. (2014) The Undeserved Bend - Migraine with Aura and PFO
In this talk I will share my story of an undeserved spinal bend I experienced following a benign SCUBA dive to 35m. I will briefly outline the suspected cause of this decompression episode, a patent foramen ovale (PFO), and discuss its historical clinical links with migraine with aura. I will finish by highlighting strategies available for continuing to dive with a PFO and alternative, medical interventions that can be undergone in order to “fix” the issue.
Kay, W. P., Wilson, R. P. (2013) Investment for foraging: Examining the prey capture efficiency in the Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus)
The energetic costs of foraging in diving marine vertebrates are often difficult to quantify, although the physical processes required to catch prey must involve a form of energy expenditure. Optimal foraging theory predicts that animals must maximise their net energy gain and hence, expense can be justified if the reward is high enough. Therefore, foraging behaviour, particularly with regards to numbers of prey caught, is important to understand. During the breeding season in late November, 2008 at Punta Norte, Argentina, the diving behaviour of 14 Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) was examined, using a combination of daily diary tags and GPS loggers, to identify the numbers of prey caught (using characteristic points of inflection in the dive profile as a proxy) and the energetic costs (using overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) as a proxy) during diving. Our results showed that total ODBA increased with increasing dive depth and as numbers of prey increased, reducing standard measures of ‘dive efficiency’ due to changes in the post-dive surface interval resting period. These results highlight that Magellanic penguins have to invest both time and energy into catching prey and hence selection pressures will favour those that can develop the most efficient optimal foraging strategy to maximise their energy acquisition whilst minimising energy expenditure.