Sampling event Registered January 21, 2021

    The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking (Standardised) Data from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

    Published by SCAR - AntOBIS

    Description

    The Southern Ocean is a remote, hostile environment where conducting marine biology is challenging, so we know relatively little about this important region, which is critical as a habitat for breeding and foraging of many marine endotherms. Scientists from around the world have been tracking seals, penguins, petrels, whales and albatrosses for more than two decades to learn how they spend their time at sea. The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD), was initiated by the SCAR Expert Group on Marine Mammals (EG-BAMM) in 2010. This team has assembled tracking data shared by 38 biologists from 11 different countries to accumulate the largest animal tracking database in the world, containing information from 15 species, containing over 3,400 individual animals and almost 2.5 million at-sea locations. Analysing a dataset of this size brings its own challenges and the team is developing new and innovative statistical approaches to integrate these complex data. When complete RAATD will provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, help predict the future of top predator distribution and help with spatial management planning.

    Geographic scope

    Description

    The dataset is restricted to the Southern Ocean, in a broad sense.

    All species considered in this dataset have circumpolar distributions with a longitudinal range spanning 180°W to 180°E. The species breed either on the coast of the Antarctic continent or on the sub-Antarctic islands to the north

    Bounding box
    Latitude
    From -90 to -40
    Longitude
    From -180 to 180

    Temporal scope

    range
    January 01, 1991 - December 31, 2015

    Taxonomic scope

    Description

    Seventeen species of meso- and top predators were included in the dataset, five marine mammals (one baleen whale, one otariid and three phocid seals) and twelve seabirds (five penguin, five albatross, and two petrels). The species cover a diverse range of ecological niches and life history traits and include dietary specialists (e.g. crabeater seals), deep divers (e.g. elephant seal Mirounga leonina and emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri), wide ranging, highly migratory species (e.g. wandering albatross Diomedea exulans), nearshore foragers (e.g. Adélie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae) and capital (e.g. Weddell seal) versus income (e.g. Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella) breeders.

    Coverage
    Pygoscelis adeliaeAdelie penguinAptenodytes forsteriEmperor penguinThalassarche melanophrisBlack browed albatrossEudyptes chrysolophusMacaroni penguinAptenodytes patagonicusKing penguin

    Methodology

    Sampling

    Original deployment of tracking devices
    The RAATD core group (Fig. 1) aggregated data from three types of tracking device used by individual research teams. In increasing order of precision these are light recording Global Location Sensors (GLS loggers or geolocators), satellite-relayed Platform Terminal Transmitters (PTTs), and Global Positioning System devices (GPS). Typically, GLS and GPS devices record data in internal memory, and so must be physically recovered in order to download the data. PTTs transmit a carrier signal to satellites, and so can deliver data remotely and in near-real time. Some modern devices now combine the capabilities of PTT and GPS (or other) devices, relaying data to satellites. A GLS device, which is the smallest thus allowing deployment on the smaller predators, typically records ambient light levels through the day from which relatively coarse estimates of latitude and longitude can be calculated (100–200 km) using day length and timing of local noon. Some GLS units can also record sea surface temperature, and this can help refine position estimates. GLS locations were estimated by the data contributors using five methods (Phillips et al. 2004, Sumner et al. 2009, Lisovski & Hahn 2012, Bindoff 2017, Wotherspoon 2017) (Supplementary File S2). With very small batteries, the data are usually archived and thus animals must be recaptured to download the data. GPS tags make use of global navigation satellite systems and provide very high resolution (10 m) location fixes and time information. PTT tags transmit signals to ARGOS satellites which transfer the received signals and their frequencies to a receiving station at the Collecte de Localisation Satellites (CLS) in Toulouse, France, to estimate locations based on Doppler shifts in the received signals to a medium level of accuracy(~1,000 m). Processing by CLS involved a least-squares filtering method up to 2008, thereafter using Kalman filters (Lopez et al. 2014). Different models of GLS, PTT, and GPS devices from different manufactures have been used throughout the years, each of these having specific characteristics (size, operating modes, etc.) that may influence accuracy of the locations, but as device type was not always provided by the data providers, we applied standard corrections (see below). Device attachment to animals was also species-specific. When loggers are small enough, like GLS, they are mounted on leg or flipper bands, while larger data-loggers and transmitters are often attached to the plumage or fur on the back or head of the animal, a position that optimizes data communication with satellites. Modes of attachment on the back varied from using harnesses, glue or marine tape. For whales, transmitters with cutaneous anchors were attached to the back, using poles, cross bows or air guns. Scientists limited handling time and stress as much as possible during attachment and retrieval of devices (e.g. Field et al. 2012), following established animal handling guidelines, and institutional ethical review. However, it should be noted that our dataset contains tracking data that span almost three decades during which time substantial progress has been made in terms of miniaturization and advances in electronic components. Any adverse effects of devices on animals are therefore likely to be less acute in recent years than in the earlier years of tracking. Consideration of adverse reaction on study animals has been reviewed in the past (e.g. Phillips et al. 2003, Vandenabeele et al. 2012, Bannasch et al. 1994).

    Study extent

    All species considered in this dataset have circumpolar distributions with a longitudinal range spanning 180°W to 180°E. The species breed either on the coast of the Antarctic continent or on the sub-Antarctic islands to the north. Species with geographically limited distributions (such as chinstrap penguins Pygoscelis antarcticus) were not included. In addition, a number of deployments in the Antarctic (crabeater seals Lobodon carcinophagus and Weddell seals Leptonychotes weddellii) were conducted in the pack ice at un-named locations. Similarly, humpback whales Megaptera novaengeliae were instrumented at sea either off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula or off Australia.

    Method steps
    1. Data Collection
      Starting from 2010, the core group of RAATD compiled a catalogue of existing (both published and unpublished) tracking data by contacting international experts and asking them to contribute data. The data collection phase ended in 2016. Besides directly contacting researchers, the team also harvested data from existing repositories, including the Australian Antarctic Data Center (https://data.aad.gov.au/), the Integrated Marine Observing System (http://imos.org.au/), PANGAEA (https://www.pangaea.de/), BirdLife International (http://www.seabirdtracking.org/), the Antarctic Biodiversity Portal (http://www.biodiversity.aq/), Ocean Biogeographic Information System (http://www.iobis.org/), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (http://www.gbif.org/).

    2. Associated metadata
      Where available, information on the deployment site and relevant characteristics of the animal at the time of deployment was standardized by the data editors. Where age class and sex were known, these were included in the metadata

    3. Data standardization
      Location dates and times were converted to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Records with missing latitude or longitude values were removed, and all longitudes were transformed to lie between 180° W and 180° E. Data files were row-ordered by individual, with rows within an individual in their correct temporal sequence. Near-duplicate positions were removed, those positions defined as having occurred 3 seconds or less after an existing position fix from the same animal, and which had identical longitude and latitude values (for GPS devices) or longitude and latitude values that differed by less than 1e-05 and which had the same location quality value (for PTT devices).
      Entries in the age class, breeding stage, device type, location quality, scientific, common, and abbreviated name, sex, and deployment site columns were validated against controlled vocabularies. Mandatory entries (e.g. deployment date, device type, individual animal identifier) were checked for missing values.

      Deployment locations were recorded by the original field team either at the individual animal level (using e.g. a hand-held GPS device) or at the deployment-site level (i.e. one deployment location per group of animals). The latter was common for deployments at colonies, whereas the former was most common for non-colony deployments (e.g. on seals and whales). Where deployment locations were not recorded by the field team, the first location estimate(s) in the tracking data were used. Deployment site names were standardized to colony granularity wherever possible (e.g. to the beach-on-island level).

      Periods at the start or end of deployments were identified and discarded if there was evidence that location data during these periods did not represent the animals’ at-sea movement. For example, tags may have been turned on early (thereby recording locations prior to their deployment on animals) or animals may have remained at the deployment site, e.g. the breeding colony, for an extended period at the start or end of the tag deployment. Some tracks also showed a marked deterioration in the frequency and quality (for PTTs) of location estimates near the end of a track. Such locations were visually identified based on maps of each track in conjunction with plots of location distance from deployment site against time. This information is captured in the location_to_keep column appended to each species’ raw data file (1 = keep, 0 = discard).

    4. Data filtering
      The trimmed data were subjected to a number of automated quality control checks to remove individual deployments that: 1) were flagged for removal by the Data Editor Group (using the keepornot column in the metadata file); 2) had fewer than 20 location records; and 3) had deployments lasting less than 1 day. Additionally, individual deployments were checked to ensure that: 1) duplicate records in PTTs (locations occurring within 2 min of each other) were removed; 2) PTT Argos Z-class locations were reclassified as B-class locations (the least precise Argos location quality class that has an associated error variance; Jonsen et al. 2005); and 3) locations implying unrealistic travel rates (> 10 m s-1 for penguins and marine mammals and > 30 m s-1 for flying seabirds) were removed. Note that the definition of “duplicate locations” in this filtering context is more aggressive than that used during data standardization: for standardization purposes, the intention was to keep the data as close to original as possible, whereas for filtering the presence of multiple positions in a short period of time (< 2 min) has a negative effect on the filter performance.
      A state-space model (SSM) was used to estimate locations at regular time intervals (1 h for GPS data; 2 h for Argos data; 12 h for GLS data) and account for measurement error in the original observations (Jonsen et al. 2005, Block et al. 2011). The data were SSM-filtered and subject to a final quality control where tracks that failed to converge, as judged by nlminb convergence criteria (Nash 2014), were re-fit using different initial values. If re-fit tracks continually failed to converge they were removed from the final filtered dataset. For converged tracks, longitude and latitude residuals were examined for systematic trends indicative of lack of fit. Tracks that failed this inspection were removed from the final filtered dataset.

    5. Data publication
      The core working team of RAATD established a data sharing and publication agreement with all data providers in 2017. The standardized (trimmed) data are held here. The filtered data are published in international repositories (see details below, in the ‘Filtered Data’ section).

    Additional info

    marine, harvested by iOBIS

    Contacts

    • Yan Ropert-Coudert

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Station d’Écologie de Chizé-Université de La Rochelle
      Address
      CNRS UMR7372
      Roles
      Originator
      Author
      Email
    • Anton P. Van de Putte

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      BEDIC, OD Nature, Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences
      Address
      Rue Vautierstraat 29
      Roles
      Originator
      Author
      Email
      User ID
    • Horst Bornemann

      Originator
      Organization
      Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
      Address
      Am Handelshafen 12
      Roles
      Originator
      Email
    • Jean-Benoît Charrassin

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      Sorbonne Universités, UPMC University, Paris 06
      Roles
      Originator
      Author
    • Daniel P. Costa

      Originator
      Organization
      Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz
      Roles
      Originator
    • Bruno Danis

      Originator
      Organization
      Université Libre de Bruxelles, Marine Biology Lab
      Roles
      Originator
    • Luis A. Hückstädt

      Originator
      Organization
      Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz
      Roles
      Originator
    • Ian D. Jonsen

      Originator
      Organization
      Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University
      Roles
      Originator
    • Mary-Anne Lea

      Originator
      Organization
      Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
      Roles
      Originator
    • Ryan R. Reisinger

      Originator
      Organization
      Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Station d’Écologie de Chizé-Université de La Rochelle
      Roles
      Originator
    • David Thompson

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
      Roles
      Originator
      Author
    • Leigh G. Torres

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      Hatfield Marine Science Center
      Roles
      Originator
      Author
    • Philip N. Trathan

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council
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      Originator
      Author
    • Simon Wotherspoon

      Originator
      Author
      Organization
      Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
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      Originator
      Author
    • David G Ainley

      Originator
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      Originator
    • Rachael Alderman

      Originator
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    • Virginia Andrews-Goff

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    • Ben Arthur

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    • Grant Ballard

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    • John Bengtson

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    • Marthán N. Bester

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    • Lars Boehme

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    • Charles-André Bost

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    • Peter Boveng

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    • Jaimie Cleeland

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    • Rochelle Constantine

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    • Robert J. M. Crawford

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    • Luciano Dalla Rosa

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    • P.J. Nico de Bruyn

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    • Karine Delord

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    • Sébastien Descamps

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    • Mike Double

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    • Louise Emmerson

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    • Mike Fedak

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    • Ari Friedlander

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    • Nick Gales

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    • Mike Goebel

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    • Kimberly T. Goetz

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    • Christophe Guinet

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    • Simon D. Goldsworthy

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    • Rob Harcourt

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    • Jefferson Hinke

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    • Kerstin Jerosch

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    • Akiko Kato

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    • Knowles R. Kerry

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    • Roger Kirkwood

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    • Gerald L. Kooyma

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    • Kit M. Kovacs

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    • Kieran Lawton

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    • Andrew D. Lowther

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    • Christian Lydersen

      Originator
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    • Phil O'B. Lyver

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    • Azwianewi B. Makhado

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    • Maria E. I. Márquez

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    • Birgitte McDonald

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    • Clive McMahon

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    • Monica Muelbert

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    • Dominik Nachtsheim

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    • Keith W. Nicholls

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    • Erling S. Nordøy

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    • Silvia Olmastroni

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    • Richard A. Phillips

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    • Pierre Pistorius

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    • Joachim Plötz

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    • Klemens Pütz

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    • Norman Ratcliffe

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    • Peter G. Ryan

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    • Mercedes Santos

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    • Arnoldus Schytte Blix

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    • Colin Southwell

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    • Iain Staniland

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    • Akinori Takahashi

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    • Arnaud Tarroux

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    • Wayne Trivelpiece

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    • Ewan Wakefield

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    • Henri Weimerskirch

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    • Barbara Wienecke

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    • José C. Xavier

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    • Ben Raymond

      Originator
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    • Mark A. Hindell

      Originator
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    • Anton Van de Putte

      Metadata author
      Organization
      BEDIC, OD Nature, Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences
      Address
      Rue Vautierstraat 29
      Roles
      Metadata author
      Email
    • Bruno Danis

      Author
      Organization
      Université Libre de Bruxelles
      Position
      Associate Professor
      Address
      50, avenue FD Roosevelt
      Roles
      Author
      Email
      User ID
    • Horst Bornemann

      Author
      Organization
      Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
      Position
      Researcher
      Address
      Am Handelshafen 12
      Roles
      Author
    • Mark Hindell

      Author
      Organization
      Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania,
      Position
      Professor
      Roles
      Author
      User ID
    • Luis Huckstadt

      Author
      Organization
      Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab
      Position
      Researcher
      Address
      115 McAllister Way
      Roles
      Author
      User ID
    • Ian D Jonsen

      Author
      Organization
      Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University
      Position
      Professor
      Roles
      Author
    • Daniel P. Costa

      Author
      Organization
      Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Long Marine Lab
      Position
      Professor
      Address
      115 McAllister Way
      Roles
      Author
      User ID
    • Mary-Anne Lea

      Author
      Organization
      Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania
      Address
      20 Castray Esplanade
      Roles
      Author
      User ID
    • Ryan R. Reisinger

      Author
      Organization
      Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Station d’Écologie de Chizé-Université de La Rochelle
      Address
      CNRS UMR7372
      Roles
      Author
      User ID
    • David G. Ainley

      Content provider
      Organization
      H.T. Harvey & Associates
      Address
      983 University Avenue
      Roles
      Content provider
    • Yan Ropert-Coudert

      Administrative point of contact
      Organization
      Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Station d’Écologie de Chizé-Université de La Rochelle
      Address
      CNRS UMR7372
      Roles
      Administrative point of contact
    • Anton P. Van de Putte

      Administrative point of contact
      Organization
      BEDIC, OD Nature, Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences
      Position
      Project Manager
      Roles
      Administrative point of contact

    GBIF registration

    Registration date
    January 21, 2021
    Metadata last modified
    October 23, 2024
    Publication date
    October 23, 2024
    Hosted by
    Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility (ANTABIF)
    Installation
    ANTABIF IPT
    Endpoints
    Darwin Core Archive
    EML
    Preferred identifier
    10.4225/15/5afcb927e8162
    Alternative identifiers
    DOI10.15468/uzmdpm
    DOI10.4225/15/5afcadad6c130

    Citation

    Ropert-Coudert Y, Van de Putte A P, Bornemann H, Charrassin J, Costa D P, Danis B, Hückstädt L A, Jonsen I D, Lea M, Reisinger R R, Thompson D, Torres L G, Trathan P N, Wotherspoon S, Ainley D G, Alderman R, Andrews-Goff V, Arthur B, Ballard G, Bengtson J, Bester M N, Boehme L, Bost C, Boveng P, Cleeland J, Constantine R, Crawford R J M, Dalla Rosa L, de Bruyn P N, Delord K, Descamps S, Double M, Emmerson L, Fedak M, Friedlander A, Gales N, Goebel M, Goetz K T, Guinet C, Goldsworthy S D, Harcourt R, Hinke J, Jerosch K, Kato A, Kerry K R, Kirkwood R, Kooyma G L, Kovacs K M, Lawton K, Lowther A D, Lydersen C, Lyver P O, Makhado A B, Márquez M E I, McDonald B, McMahon C, Muelbert M, Nachtsheim D, Nicholls K W, Nordøy E S, Olmastroni S, Phillips R A, Pistorius P, Plötz J, Pütz K, Ratcliffe N, Ryan P G, Santos M, Schytte Blix A, Southwell C, Staniland I, Takahashi A, Tarroux A, Trivelpiece W, Wakefield E, Weimerskirch H, Wienecke B, Xavier J C, Raymond B, Hindell M A, Van de Putte A (2024). The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking (Standardised) Data from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Version 1.5. SCAR - AntOBIS. Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.biodiversity.aq/resource?r=scar_raatd_trackingdata&v=1.5 https://doi.org/10.4225/15/5afcb927e8162 accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-08-23.