GLOBEC: Biochemical Determination of Age and Dietary History in the Krill Euphasia superba

美国全球海洋生态系统动态（U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics，简称GLOBEC）项目的目标是了解并最终预测海洋动物种群对自然和人为气候变化的反应。在南大洋（SO）的研究表明，气候过程和生态系统动力学之间的强耦合通过每年海冰的形成和破坏。南大洋GLOBEC计划（SO GLOBEC）将通过确定影响目标物种分布、丰度和种群动态的关键参数，研究物理过程与生态系统响应之间的动态关系。SO GLOBEC项目的总体目标是阐明大陆架环流过程及其对海冰形成和磷虾分布的影响，并研究影响磷虾生存和向更高营养水平（包括企鹅、海豹和鲸鱼）供应的因素。美国对国际SO GLOBEC项目的贡献重点将放在冬季过程上。该部分将应用新的生化方法来确定磷虾在季节和年际时间尺度上的种群年龄结构。针对不同食物资源的脂质将与建立饮食史标记的目的同时使用。这项研究将与磷虾摄食和生长研究相协调。综合SO GLOBEC计划的结果将是提高海洋生物资源的可预测性，特别是对当地和全球气候变化的可预测性。

The U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (U.S. GLOBEC) program has the goal of understanding and ultimately predicting how populations of marine animal species respond to natural and anthropogenic changes in climate. Research in the Southern Ocean (SO) indicates strong coupling between climatic processes and ecosystem dynamics via the annual formation and destruction of sea ice. The Southern Ocean GLOBEC Program (SO GLOBEC) will investigate the dynamic relationship between physical processes and ecosystem responses through identification of critical parameters that affect the distribution, abundance and population dynamics of target species. The overall goals of the SO GLOBEC program are to elucidate shelf circulation processes and their effect on sea ice formation and krill distribution, and to examine the factors which govern krill survivorship and availability to higher trophic levels, including penguins, seals and whales. The focus of the U.S. contribution to the international SO GLOBEC program will be on winter processes. This component will apply new biochemical approaches to determine the population age structure of krill in field populations over seasonal and interannual time scales. Lipids specific to different food resources will be used in parallel with the intent of establishing markers for dietary history. This research will be coordinated with components studying krill feeding and growth. The result of the integrated SO GLOBEC program will be to improve the predictability of living marine resources, especially with respect to local and global climatic shifts.