Temporal and spatial activity-associated energy partitioning in free-swimming sea snakes

1. Partitioning energy between critical basal functions and activity-associated behaviours is a primary determinant of animal survival. Consequently, habitat selection is likely to be driven by the efficiency with which resources can be acquired from a heterogeneous energy landscape. 2. Determining how energy partitioning is achieved across temporal and spatial scales is particularly challenging in aquatic animals due to the logistical limitations in estimating field metabolic rates (FMR) while simultaneously examining habitat choice. 3. Here, accelerometry telemetry and bimodal respirometry were used to correlate vectorial dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA) with oxygen consumption rates (V̇o2) of sea snakes (Hydrophis curtus and H. elegans) across an ecologically-relevant temperature range. Subsequently, VeDBA of free-roaming snakes was used to estimate activity-associated FMR within a near-shore environment over diel, seasonal and spatial scales. 4. Diel changes in activity explained s...