Reference genome of the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), a Southern Ocean apex predator

Apex predators play a key role in maintaining ecosystem structure and functions (Ripple et al., 2014; Estes et al., 2016; Enquist et al., 2020). They exert top-down control on food webs, affecting nutrient and carbon cycles, modifying habitats, and regulating the spread of disease and invasive species (reviewed in Hammerschlag et al. (2019)). Hence, knowledge of the basic biology of apex predator species facilitates the prediction of their ecosystem impacts. However, it can be difficult to gather this knowledge for species that occupy remote habitats and have solitary lifestyles (Olivier et al., 2022).

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