Distribution of South American Fur Seals Along the Atlantic Coast of South America

TUNEZ, JUAN I.; CAPPOZZO, H.L.; CASSINI, M.H.

Brisbane

Congreso; 10th International Congress of Ecology; 2009

New Zealand Ecological Society

The study covered approximately 5400 km of the distribution of fur seals along the Atlantic coast of Uruguay and Argentina, from Isla del Marco, Uruguay (34°20′S 53°46′W) to Les Eclaireurs Islets, Argentina (54°52′S 68°07′W) (Fig. 2a). These 5400 km were divided in 27 segments of 200 km using GIS with ARCVIEW® software. In each segment, 13 variables were measured (Figure 1). These data sets were used to build different geo-referenced shape files using GIS. Fur seals bibliographic census data were processed to obtain two distribution data sets: (1) “middle of XX century” distribution, and (2) “end of XX century” distribution. Comparison of the distribution of A. australis in relation to time: The total number of colonies and the number of breeding colonies in each of the study periods (in each segment) were compared in a Contingency Analysis.Principal Components Analysis: To analyze natural and anthropogenic variables measured in all 200 km segments and associate them with fur seals distribution at the end of the XX century.Simple regression analysis: To determine the effect of variables in fur seals distribution. We used the first two factors of the PCA as independent variables, and both fur seals dependent variables.