Antarctic Pack Ice Seals: Ecological Interactions with Prey and the Environment

南极浮冰海豹：与猎物和环境的生态相互作用

• 批准号: 9816016
• 负责人: Langdon Quetin
• 金额: $ 35.07万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-05-01 至 2003-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9816016&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Antarctic; Pack; Ice; Seals; Ecological

9816016 QUETINThe pack ice region surrounding Antarctica contains at least fifty percent of the world's population of seals, comprising about eighty percent of the world's total pinniped biomass. As a group, these seals are among the dominant top predators in Southern Ocean ecosystems, and the fluctuation in their abundance, growth patterns, life histories, and behavior provide a potential source of information about environmental variability integrated over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This proposal was developed as part of the international Antarctic Pack Ice Seals (APIS) program, which is aimed to better understand the ecological relationships between the distribution of pack ice seals and their environment. During January-February, 2000, a research cruise through the pack ice zone of the eastern Ross Sea and western Amundsen Sea will be conducted to survey and sample along six transects perpendicular to the continental shelf. Each of these transects will pass through five environmental sampling strata: continental shelf zone, Antarctic slope front, pelagic zone, the ice edge front, and the open water outside the pack ice zone. All zones but open water will be ice-covered to some degree. Surveys along each transect will gather data on bathymetry, hydrography, sea ice dynamics and characteristics, phytoplankton and ice algae stocks, prey species (e.g., fish, cephalopods and euphausiids), and seal distribution, abundance and diet. This physical and trophic approach to investigating ecological interactions among pack ice seals, prey and the physical environment will allow the interdisciplinary research team to test the hypothesis that there are measurable physical and biological features in the Southern Ocean that result in area of high biological activity by upper trophic level predators. Better insight into the interplay among pack ice seals and biological and physical features of Antarctic marine ecosystems will allow for a better prediction of fluctuation in seal population in the context of environmental change.

9816016围绕南极洲围绕的冰冰区域至少占世界海豹群体的占百分之五十，占世界总PINNIPED BIOMASS的约80％。 作为一个整体，这些密封件是南方海洋生态系统中的主要顶级捕食者之一，其丰度，生长模式，生活历史和行为的波动提供了有关在各种空间和时间尺度上整合的环境变异性的潜在信息来源。 该提案是作为国际南极包装密封件（API）计划的一部分制定的，该计划的目的是更好地了解包装冰密封的分布与其环境之间的生态关系。在2000年1月至2月，将进行一项研究，穿过东罗斯海和西部阿蒙森海的包装冰区，将进行调查和采样，并沿着垂直于大陆架的六个横断面进行采样。 这些样带中的每一个都将穿过五个环境采样地层：大陆架区域，南极斜坡正面，上层区域，冰缘前部以及包装冰区外的开放水。 除开水外的所有区域都将在某种程度上被冰覆盖。 沿每个样带的调查将收集有关测深，水文，海冰动力学和特征的数据，浮游植物和冰藻类的股票，猎物（例如，鱼类，头足类和euphausiids）以及密封分布，丰富的和饮食。这种研究冰密封，猎物和物理环境之间生态相互作用的物理和营养方法将使跨学科研究团队能够检验南海中有可测量的物理和生物学特征的假设，从而导致高营养水平捕食者高生物学活性。 更好地了解包装冰密封之间的相互作用以及南极海洋生态系统的生物学和物理特征，将在环境变化的背景下更好地预测密封群的波动。