Spatial overlap of sea ice-associated predators and prey in western Hudson Bay

Our objective was to identify distribution hotspots and spatial relationships among polar bears, Arctic foxes, ringed seals, and bearded seals in the sea ice environment. We hypothesized that both polar bears and Arctic foxes, which face limited interspecific competition, maximize their spatial overlap with resources. We further hypothesized that persistence in space use is low between years, due to the dynamic nature of sea ice. We predicted high spatial overlaps between polar bears and all three other species, a large overlap between Arctic foxes and ringed seals, and a low overlap between Arctic foxes and bearded seals, and between ringed seals and bearded seals reflecting their distinct habitat preferences. Finally, we did not expect high overlap between the yearly hotspots of polar bears and ringed seals based on the temporal dynamics of sea ice.

Data: Observation type, lat/long coordinates, and Year necessary to create hotspots. Note, Polar Bear hunting attempt was used to create hotspot "Structure".