Research conducted by Ph.D. student Kristina Cammen and Master’s student Brianne Soulen, a previous member of the Johnston lab, was recently featured on the Smithsonian’s Ocean Portal blog (http://ocean.si.edu/blog/ice-loving-seals-and-loss-sea-ice). Brianne and Kristina worked with Duke Marine Lab faculty Tom Schultz and Dave Johnston to investigate environmental and genetic factors that may affect harp seal stranding rates in the Northeast. They found a greater number of harp seal strandings, particularly of male yearlings, in years with low sea ice cover.
The authors found no difference in genetic diversity between stranded seals and by-caught seals, which represented the healthy population; the study found overall high genetic diversity in the harp seal population.
For more information, check out the open source article published recently in PLOS: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068779
