2025/09/01 by Jorge Corrales‐Guerrero, Simon Goldsworthy, Melinda A. Coleman +5 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Marine animal studies overview #Cephalopods and Marine Biology #Ichthyology and Marine Biology
paper · doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsaf164
Abstract Robust and thriving populations of marine predators are widely recognized as being essential to enhancing trophic complexity, structure, and biodiversity. While some pinniped populations have shown signs of recovery, many others, including Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea), remain at low levels or continue to decline. There is a limited understanding of the relationship between feeding habitat preferences, food web dynamics, and benthic community structure. We examined how foraging density of the endangered Australian sea lion relates to fish and invertebrate assemblage structure. We also assessed how several biophysical conditions influence these patterns across multiple South Australian coastal sites. Our methods revealed positive associations between sea lion foraging density and the abundance of their benthic prey. Depth was the primary factor explaining the variability in foraging density, followed by primary productivity (Chl a). Habitat use appears driven by prey patch characteristics, including depth, productivity, and substrate, suggesting specialized foraging strategies. Our results suggest that sea lion densities are associated with areas of elevated prey availability and local species richness, though it remains unclear whether predators influence community structure or simply select more biodiverse habitats. Long-term monitoring of sea lions and their prey in and around coexisting habitats will help to disentangle trophic interactions linked with sea lion population recovery. Further research is needed to better understand the critical habitats and trophic ecology of sea lions, and their impact on community structure in different habitats. Understanding sea lion foraging ecology and its role in structuring benthic ecosystems can enhance conservation planning by integrating predator–prey dynamics into marine management frameworks.