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Common loon winter dive data

Metadata Updated: January 21, 2026

Breeding common loons for the movement and foraging pattern study were obtained from lakes in central and northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Both adults of a territorial pair were fitted with archival geolocator tags (Model LAT 2500; 34.6 x 8.3 mm, 4.4 g; Lotek Wireless Inc.). A combination of adhesive and plastic cable ties were used to affix the geolocator tag to a modified lock-on aluminum leg band. Tags were programmed to collect daily location estimates for up to two years, tag temperature (0.02o C accuracy, ≤ 0.05o C resolution) at 30-min intervals, and pressure data (±1% accuracy, 0.05% resolution) at 20-sec intervals during daylight hours to document foraging patterns (dive profiles) while on the Great Lakes during fall migration and on the wintering grounds. Data stored on geolocator tags were not transmitted, requiring that the marked loon be recaptured to recover the tag and download the data. The geolocator tags were capable of storing data for several years before the devices needed to be downloaded. Geolocator tag data collected over the previous year(s) were downloaded from tags using LAT Viewer Studio software (Lotek Wireless Inc.). Geolocator tag location estimates were based on light-based geolocations using the template-fitting approach (Exstrom, 2004), in combination with tag temperature (sea surface temperature) and pressure (dive depth) data. Template-fit error estimates were used to filter aberrant geolocation estimates. Sea surface temperature (derived from NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer [MODIS] imagery) across North America inland lakes, Atlantic coastal waters, and the Gulf of Mexico, coupled with diving depth information were used to improve or obtain location estimates and timing of migration movements when light-based geolocation estimates were unreliable. Attributes of dives (i.e., proportion of time underwater, depth of dive, ascent and descent rates, duration of dive, time within 2 m of maximum depth, post dive surface interval) were extracted from pressure data. When geotagged loons were in freshwater, depth was estimated by pressure (dbar) * 1.019716 m / dbar (http://www.seabird.com/document/an69-conversion-pressure-depth). When geotagged loons occurred in marine environments, depth was estimated from pressure measurements, estimates of gravity at given latitude and depth, all at standard ocean mass salinity of 35 g/kg (Fofonoff and Millard 1983). Dives were considered as submergence below the water surface, which we define as recorded depth of >0.8 m (typical body length of adult common loons in this study). Because pressure data were collected at 20-sec intervals, we interpolated the times of both dive initiation and surfacing. Maximum daily ascent and descent rates were estimated individually for each loon and used to interpolate these times, where rates were based on median values derived from dives >35 m (n = 3,974 dives of 10 individual loons). The descent and ascent rates used for interpolation were 1.056 m/sec and 1.605 m/sec, respectively, when loons were in freshwater (Kenow et al. 2018), and 0.992 and 1.399 m/sec, respectively, in marine environments.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date January 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date January 13, 2026
Metadata Updated Date January 21, 2026
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/USGS_63519c99d34e47431c15dc49
Data Last Modified 2024-10-10T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Datagov Dedupe Retained 20260121062710
Harvest Object Id c2cb44fc-3305-4285-b72c-6d5598e7242e
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0, -90.0, -180.0, 90.0, 180.0, 90.0, 180.0, -90.0, -180.0, -90.0}
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0129ad051ddcefda2f74fe95bc86c545be042435e9cad2b2fa40494611d6526f
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -180.0, -90.0, -180.0, 90.0, 180.0, 90.0, 180.0, -90.0, -180.0, -90.0}

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