Durham E-Theses Late Holocene records of Antarctic fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) population variation on South Georgia, sub Antarctic Foster, Victoria A. How to cite: Foster, Victoria A. (2005) Late Holocene records of Antarctic fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) population variation on South Georgia, sub Antarctic, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3934/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Late Holocene records of Antarctic Fur Seal {Arctocephalus gazella) population variation on South Georgia, sub Antarctic Victoria A Foster MSc by Research University of Durham Department of Geography 2005 Tbe copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. 0? m 2007 Abstract Late Holocene records of Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazelld) population variation on South Georgia, sub Antarctic. Foster, V. A (2005) The Antarctic fur seal {Arctocephalus gazelld) population at South Georgia has increased dramatically through the 20* and 21^' centuries following near extinction at the beginning of the 20* century. This rapid increase is now causing concern as the seals are damaging the coastal habitats of South Georgia including specially protected areas. To assess whether this population increase is part of a natural fluctuation or due to human induced changes in the marine ecosystem, the fur seal population has been reconstructed through the Holocene from seal hair abundance and geochemistry. Results firom the fur seal hair abundance record show fur seals have been present at South Georgia for at least the past 3439 ''*C yrs BP and the population today is not unprecedented during the late Holocene. Although previous studies have found a correlation between fur seal populations and geochemistry, this study highlights that this is not effective at all study sites due to the complex relationship between climate change, catchment sediment delivery processes and seal population dynamics. At South Georgia, Cu and Zn are found to be indicators of fiir seal activity once a threshold of 1500 hairs per 1 g of dry weight is reached. The fiir seal hair abundance results suggest there is a link between fur seal populations and climate change. Although the largest increases in fur seal population occur during cooler periods, the fur seal population is primarily controlled by prey availability (Euphausia superba), which is in turn influenced by climate change. Pre 200 yrs BP, an increase in prey availability is associated with colder periods, which are linked to changes in oceanography and led to a consequent increase in sea-ice extent. Post 200 yrs BP, the whaling industry has resulted in a krill surplus in the South Georgia region elevating krill availability, causing an increase in the fur seal population (that has been coincident with warming). Although the population has increased during the 20* and 21^' century as a result of human induced causes, this increase cannot be sustained once the krill surplus ceases. As the population has been at similar levels previously and the krill surplus is thought to be ending, it is concluded that the fiir seal population increase during the 20* century is not abnormal and management of the fur seal population at South Georgia may not be necessary. Contents Contents List of figures 13 Declaration 14 Acknowledgements 15 Chapter 1 - Introduction and Aim 1.1 Research Context 20 1.2 Overall Aim 21 1.3 Specific Obj ectives 21 1.4 Mechanisms influencing fur seal populations 23 1.4.1 Natural environmental changes 23 1.4.2 Human induced changes 24 1.4.2.1 Sealing 24 1.4.2.2 Whaling 25 1.5 Summary 25 Chapter 2 - Background and Rationale 2: Background and Rationale 27 2.1 Rationale for study location 27 2.2 Study Site 28 2.2.1 South Georgia 28 2.2.2 Maiviken 31 2.2.3 Lake Catchment 35 2.2.4 Core Site 37 2.2.5 Lake processes 38 2.2.5.1 Lake inputs 39 2.2.5.2 Lake Circulation 39 2.2.5.3 Lake Outputs 39 2.2.5.1 Late Holocene Environmental Changes 40 2.3.1 South Georgia Environmental Change 43 Contents 2.3.1.1 Pre 2600 14C years BP 43 2.3.1.2 2600- 1600 14C yrs BP 43 2.3.1.3 1000 14C years BP 45 2.3.1.4 Post 200 14C years BP 46 2.3.2 Humic Lake Environmental Changes 46 2.3.2.1 General climate 49 2.3.2.2 Catchment specific environmental changes 49 2.3.3 Regional environmental change 52 2.3.3.1 2600-2000 14C yrs BP (Climate deterioration) 52 2.3.3.2 2000-1000 14C yrs BP (Warm phase) 53 2.3.3.3 1000-200 14C yrs BP (Cooling, fluctuating climate) 53 2.3.3.4 200 14C yrs BP 55 2.3.3.5 Summary 55 2.4 Historical records of climate change 56 2.4.1 1920-1940 (Cooling) 57 2.4.2 1940-1960 (Warming trend) 58 2.4.3 1960-Present day 58 2.5 Fur seal population on South Georgia 59 2.5.1 Exploitation 59 2.5.2 Post Exploitation 60 2.5.3 The Situation Today 63 2.6 Fur seal population of the Sub Antarctic Islands 64 2.7 Possible causes for the increase in fur seals 65 2.7.1 Human induced causes 66 2.7.1.1 Prey Availability 66 2.7.1.2 Predator Competition 67 2.7.2 Summary of human induced factors 67 2.7.3 Natural Environmental changes 67 2.7.3.1 Prey Availability 67 2.7.3.1.1 Climate 68 2.7.3.1.2 Competition 69 2.7.3.1.3 Swmn^ of prey ayail^^ -70 2.7.3.2 Predator competition 70 2.7.3.2.1 Sea Ice 70 2.7.3.2.2 Terrain 71 Contents 2.7.3.2.3 Summary of predator competition 72 2.7.4 Summary of factors affects fur seal populations 72 2.8 Fur seals on South Georgia and their impacts 73 2.8.1 Management of fur seals on South Georgia 77 2.9 Summary 79 Chapter 3 - Methodology 3: Methodology 81 3.1 Sediment cores 81 3.1.1 Core depth and scaling 81 3.1.2 Sedimentological and Stratigraphic core analysis 83 3.1.3 Sub sampling 83 3.2 Fur seal hair abundance 83 3.3 Development and refinement of the Hodgson et al. (1998) technique 85 3.3.1 Final methodology 85 3.3.2 Physical separation 85 3.3.2.1 Sieving 85 3.3.2.2 Particle shape analysis 86 3.3.3 Chemical separation 86 3.3.3.1 Hydrogen peroxide (H202) 86 3.3.3.2 Fine Sieving 87 3.3.4 Identifying hairs 87 3.4 Geochemical analysis 90 3.4.1 Fur seal geochemistry 90 3.4.2 Penguin geochemistry 92 3.4.3 Geochemical hypotheses 93 3.4.3.1 Carbon 94 3.4.3.2 Nitrogen 95 3.4.3.3 Sulphur 95 3.4.3.4 Selenium 95 3.4.3.5 Zinc 95 3.4.3.6 Copper 96 3.4.3.7 Strontium 96 Contents 3.4.3.8 Cadmium 96 3.4.3.9 Sodium 97 3.4.3.10 Calcium 97 3.4.3.11 Manganese 98 3.4.4 ICP-MS hypotheses 98 3.4.4.1 Aluminium 99 3.4.4.2 Potassium 100 3.4.4.3 Titanium 100 3.4.4.4 Barium 100 3.4.4.5 Iron, Lithium, Vanadium and Chromium 100 3.4.4.6 Molybdenum 101 3.4.4.7 Thallium 101 3.4.4.8 Other elements 101 3.4.5 Geochemical summary 102 3.4.6 Methodology 103 3.4.6.1 Elemental Combustion System 103 3.4.6.2 Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS) 103 3.4.6.2.1 EPA 3051 Method 104 3.4.6.3 Total Organic Carbon (TOC) 104 3.4.6.4 Summary 105 3.5 Dating 105 3.5.1 Principles of radiocarbon dating 106 3.5.1.1 Radiocarbon dating methodology 106 3.5.2 210Pb and 137Cs dating 106 3.5.2.1 Principles of 21 OPb dating 107 3.5.2.2 Principles of 137Cs dating 108 3.5.2.3 Methodology for 210Pb and 137Cs dating 108 3.6 Sources and magnitude of error 108 3.6.1 Seal hair abundance 108 3.6.2 Geochemistry 109 3.6.2.1 Elemental combustion system 109 3.6.2.2 ICP-MS 110 3.7 Summary 110 6 Contents Chapter 4 - Results 4: Results 112 4.1 Core Stratigraphy 112 4.1.1 HUM3 112 4.1.2 MAIVnC 113 4.1.3 Implications for analysis 113 4.2 Depth Scale 113 4.3 Fur seal hair abundance 113 4.3.1 Error 116 4.3.2 Summary 116 4.4 Geochemistry 117 4.4.1 Group A: Nitrogen, Carbon, Strontium, Aluminium 117 4.4.1.1 Nitrogen 117 4.4.1.2 Carbon 118 4.4.1.2.1 Total Carbon 118 4.4.1.2.2 Total Organic Carbon (TOC) 118 4.4.1.3 Strontium 119 4.4.1.4 Aluminium 119 4.4.1.5 Summary of group A 121 4.4.2 Group B: Potassium, Titanium, Barium, Iron 57 and Sodium 121 4.4.2.1 Potassium 121 4.4.2.2 Titanium 121 4.4.2.3 Barium 122 4.4.2.4 57-Iron 124 4.4.2.5 Summary of group B 124 4.4.3 Group C: Copper, Zinc, Cadmium and Lithium 125 4.4.3.1 Copper 125 4.4.3.2 Zinc 125 4.4.3.3 Cadmium 127 4A.3ALm^^m _ ^ 127 4.4.3.5 Summary of group C 128 4.4.4 Group D: Bismuth, Molybdenum, Antimony, Thallium, Boron, Beryllium 128 Contents 4.4.4.1 Bismuth 128 4.4.4.2 Molybdenum 128 4.4.4.3 Antimony 129 4.4.4.4 Thallium 129 4.4.4.5 Boron 131 4.4.4.6 Beryllium 131 4.4.4.7 Summary of group D 131 4.4.5 Group E: Selenium, Vanadium, Calcium, Chromium, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron 54 132 4.4.5.1 Selenium 132 4.4.5.2 Vanadium 132 4.4.5.3 Calcium 133 4.4.5.4 Chromium 133 4.4.5.5 Manganese 135 4.4.5.6 Cobalt 135 4.4.5.7 54-Iron 136 4.4.5.8 Summary of group E 136 4.4.6 Group F: Arsenic, Sulphur, Nickel 136 4.4.6.1 Arsenic 136 4.4.6.2 Sulphur 137 4.4.7 Summary