The Role of Oceanographic Features and Prey Distribution on Foraging Energetics and Reproductive Success of the Antarctic Fur Seal, Arctocephalus Gazella

海洋学特征和猎物分布对南极毛皮海豹（Arctocephalus Gazella）觅食能量和繁殖成功的作用

• 批准号: 9726567
• 负责人: Daniel Costa
• 金额: $ 28.2万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-09-01 至 2002-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9726567&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Role; Oceanographic; Features; Prey; Distribution

9726567 COSTA Marine coastal and pelagic environments of the Southern Ocean are characterized by seasonal high productivity. Over the last several decades it has become clear that these environments, while generally productive, also undergo considerable inter- and intra-annual variability. Consequently, available prey resources for vertebrate predators can be highly variable spatially and temporally. This spatial and temporal variability of prey resources has been measured empirically for the northern South Shetland Islands region of the Antarctic Peninsula since the late 1980's. The Antarctic fur seal, a sub-polar migratory otariid with a short lactation period, is an increasingly dominant marine predator of the South Shetlands region. Its life history is pattern is characterized by foraging trips alternating with short visits to provision a single offspring; this allows scientists to measure maternal investment on the same temporal and spatial scale as measurements of distribution and abundance of prey. This project will quantify the foraging costs and maternal investment associated with changes in strategies observed in populations of South Shetland Ataractic fur seals. Energetic costs and benefits of different foraging patterns with simultaneous measurement of energy expenditure, food intake, dive depth, dive duration, time of day, and dive frequency, swim speed and foraging location will be accomplished using state of the art techniques. These measurements will coincide with small and large scale oceanographic surveys to be conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Antarctic Marine Living Resources program, which is also contributing to the support of this project. The research will allow scientists to link biological characteristics (prey composition, distribution and abundance) and physical characteristics of the foraging environment with foraging success, maternal investment and reproductive success for a free-ranging marine ve rtebrate predator.

9726567 Costa海洋沿海和南大洋上的上层环境的特征是季节性高生产率。在过去的几十年中，很明显，这些环境通常富有生产力，但也经历了大量的年度和年龄段变异性。 因此，脊椎动物捕食者的可用猎物资源在空间和时间上可能是高度可变的。 自1980年代后期以来，南极北部设得兰群岛北部地区的猎物资源的这种空间和时间变化已被经验衡量。南极毛皮密封是一种短哺乳期的亚极性迁移式耳tariid，是南设得兰群岛地区日益占主导地位的海洋捕食者。它的生活历史的模式的特征是觅食旅行与短期访问以提供单个后代的交替。这使科学家能够以相同的时间和空间规模来衡量孕产妇投资，以测量分布和猎物的丰度。该项目将量化与南设得兰群岛海豹群体中观察到的策略变化相关的觅食成本和孕产妇投资。通过同时测量能量消耗，食物摄入，潜水深度，潜水持续时间，一天中的时间以及潜水频率，游泳速度和觅食地点的能量成本和收益，并同时衡量能量消耗，进水深度，潜水持续时间，潜水持续时间。这些测量结果将与国家海洋和大气管理局的南极海洋生活资源计划进行的小型和大型海洋学调查一致，该计划也为该项目提供了支持。 这项研究将使科学家能够将生物学特征（猎物组成，分布和丰度）和觅食环境的身体特征联系起来，并获得觅食的成功，孕产妇投资和生殖成功，以获得自由播种的海洋饲料捕食者。