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

9816086JACOBS环绕南极洲的浮冰区包含了世界上至少50%的海豹种群，包括世界上总鳍足类生物量的80%。 作为一个群体，这些海豹是南大洋生态系统中占主导地位的顶级捕食者之一，它们的丰度、生长模式、生活史和行为的波动提供了关于在广泛的空间和时间尺度上整合的环境变异性的潜在信息来源。 这一提议是作为国际南极浮冰海豹（APIS）计划的一部分而制定的，该计划旨在更好地了解浮冰海豹分布与其环境之间的生态关系。在2000年1月至2月期间，将进行一次穿越罗斯海东部和阿蒙森海西部浮冰区的研究航行，沿沿着六条垂直于大陆架的断面进行调查和取样。 每个样带将经过五个环境取样层：大陆架区、南极坡前、远洋区、冰缘前和浮冰区以外的开阔水域。 除了开放水域外，所有区域都将在一定程度上被冰覆盖。 沿着每个样带的调查将收集关于水深测量、水文地理、海冰动态和特征、浮游植物和冰藻种群、猎物物种（例如，鱼类、头足类和磷虾类），以及海豹的分布、丰度和饮食。这种物理和营养的方法来调查浮冰海豹，猎物和物理环境之间的生态相互作用，将使跨学科研究小组能够测试假设，即在南大洋有可测量的物理和生物特征，导致高营养级捕食者的高生物活动区域。 更好地了解浮冰海豹与南极海洋生态系统的生物和物理特征之间的相互作用，将有助于更好地预测环境变化背景下海豹种群的波动。

9816086JACOBSThe 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.