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Integrated population model reveals human- and environment-driven changes in Baltic ringed seal Pusa hispida botnica demography and behavior
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.ORCID iD: 0009-0003-5703-0219
Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 80100 Joensuu, Finland .
Marine Environment Research Group, Sustainable Environment Unit, Turku University of Applied Sciences, 20520 Turku, Finland .
Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Population Analysis and Monitoring.
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2025 (English)In: Marine Ecology Progress Series, ISSN 0171-8630, E-ISSN 1616-1599, Vol. 764, p. 213-236Article in journal (Refereed) Accepted
Abstract [en]

Integrated population models (IPMs) are a promising approach to test ecological theories and assess wildlife populations in dynamic and uncertain conditions. By combining multiple data sources into a unified model, they enable the parametrization of versatile, mechanistic models that can predict population dynamics in novel circumstances. Here, we present a Bayesian IPM for the ringed seal Pusa hispida botnica population inhabiting the Bothnian Bay in the Baltic Sea. Despite the availability of long-term monitoring data, traditional assessment methods have faltered due to dynamic environmental conditions, varying reproductive rates, and recently re-introduced hunting, thus limiting the quality of information available to managers. We fit our model to census and various demographic, reproductive, and harvest data from 1988 to 2023 to provide a comprehensive assessment of past population trends, and predict population response to alternative hunting scenarios. We estimated that 20000–36000 ringed seals inhabited the Bothnian Bay in 2024, increasing at a rate of 3–6% yr–1. Reproductive rates have increased since 1988, leading to a substantial increase in the growth rate up until 2015. However, the re-introduction of hunting has since reduced the growth rate, and even minor quota increases are likely to reduce it further. Our results also support the hypothesis that a greater proportion of the population hauls out under lower ice cover circumstances, leading to higher aerial survey results in such years. In general, our study demonstrates the value of IPMs for monitoring wildlife populations under changing environments and for supporting science-based management decisions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. Vol. 764, p. 213-236
Keywords [en]
IPM, state-space model, Bayesian, pinniped, environmental change, haulout, long-term monitoring, wildlife management
National Category
Ecology Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Ecosystems and species history; Man and the environment
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nrm:diva-5936DOI: 10.3354/meps14886OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nrm-5936DiVA, id: diva2:1995193
Available from: 2025-09-04 Created: 2025-09-04 Last updated: 2025-09-15Bibliographically approved

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Publisher's full texthttps://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps?tx_intres%5Barticle%5D=28591&cHash=2ab204f2c10557c0ad2e52bd99a49a1b

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