U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Foraging Ecology of Wandering Albatrosses, Diamedea Exulans

这个为期两年的奖项旨在支持美法在动物生理生态学方面的合作研究，获奖者包括加州大学圣克鲁斯分校的丹尼尔·P·科斯塔、细胞生物研究中心的皮埃尔·朱文恩和亨利·魏默斯凯奇、法国南河畔波伏娃的彼得·普林斯和英国南极调查局的彼得·普林斯。NSF的这笔赠款将主要支持一名美国研究生参与南大洋法国南极岛屿的实地研究。这项研究的目的是调查流浪信天翁的觅食和父母的投资。他们将通过测量成年人在两种类型的旅行中的能量消耗、身体成分和觅食行为来检验这一假设，即在长时间和短时间的觅食活动中觅食强度不同。以游荡的信天翁为例，拟议的调查将检验当前的生活史理论，即长寿物种在繁殖和维护期间几乎不会招致风险，以便在整个生命周期内最大限度地适应环境。从本质上讲，成年人必须在自我维持和繁殖之间有区别地分配资源，在某些情况下，这会在成年人和他们的后代之间或在两个照顾者之间造成冲突。这位美国研究人员和研究生将觅食和生殖能量学测量方面的专业知识带到了这次合作中。法国在信天翁生物学方面的专业知识也与此相辅相成。它利用了对法国南极洲永久监测站的访问，关于几个信天翁物种繁殖史和种群动态的30年数据库，以及法国和英国在Argos卫星物种标记方面的进展。

9873760CostaThis two-year award in support of U.S.-France collaborative research in animal physiological ecology involves Daniel P. Costa of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Pierre Jouventin and Henri Weimerskirch of the Centre des Etudes Biologiques Cellulaires, Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France, and Peter Prince of the British Antarctic Survey. This NSF grant will principally support the participation of a US graduate student in field research in the French Antarctic islands in the Southern Ocean. The objective of the research is to investigate foraging and parental investment by wandering albatrosses or Diomedea Exulans. They will test the hypothesis that foraging intensity differs between long and short foraging bouts by measuring energy expenditure, body composition, and foraging behavior of adults on both types of trips. Using the wandering albatross as a case study, the proposed investigations will test current life history theory that long-lived species incur few risks during reproduction and maintenance in order to maximize fitness over an entire life span. In essence, adults must differentially allocate resources between self-maintenance and reproduction and in some cases, this creates conflicts between adults and their offspring or between both caregivers. The US researcher and graduate student bring to this collaboration expertise in measurements of foraging and reproductive energetics. This is complemented by French expertise on the biology of albatrosses. It takes advantage of access to permanent stations in French Antarctica, a 30 year database on reproductive history and population dynamics of several albatross species and French and British advances in ARGOS satellite tagging of species.