Habitat Utilization of Southern Ocean Seals: Foraging Behavior of Crabeater and Elephant Seals Using Novel Methods of Oceanographic Data Collection

南大洋海豹的栖息地利用：利用海洋学数据收集新方法研究食蟹海豹和象海豹的觅食行为

• 批准号: 0440687
• 负责人: Daniel Costa
• 金额: $ 90.05万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-15 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0440687&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Habitat; Utilization; Southern; Ocean; Seals

As long-lived animals, marine mammals must be capable of accommodating broad variations in food resources over large spatial and temporal scales. While this is true of all marine mammals, variation in the physical and biological environmental is particularly profound in the Southern Ocean. A basic understanding of the foraging behavior and habitat utilization of pelagic predators requires knowledge of this spatial and temporal variation, coupled with information of how they respond to these changes. Current understanding of these associations is primarily limited to population level studies where animal abundance has been correlated with oceanography. Although these studies are informative, they cannot provide insights into the strategies employed by individual animals nor can they provide insights into the spatial or temporal course of these interactions. Recent technological advances in instrumentation make it possible to extend an understanding beyond the simple linkage of prey and predator distributions with environmental features. The key to understanding the processes that lead to high predator abundance is the identification of the specific foraging behaviors associated with different features of the water column. This study will accomplish these objectives by combining accurate positional data, measures of diving and foraging behavior, animal-derived water-column temperature and salinity data, and available oceanographic data. This project will examine the foraging behavior and habitat utilization of two species of contrasting foraging ecology, the southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina, and the crabeater seal, Lobodon carcinophagus in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, a region of strong environmental gradients. Although these two species are phylogenetically related, they utilize substantially different but adjacent habitat types. Southern elephant seals are predominantly pelagic, moving throughout the southern ocean, venturing occasionally into the seasonal pack ice whereas crabeater seals range throughout the seasonal pack ice, venturing occasionally into open water. The relationship of specific foraging behaviors and animal movement patterns to oceanographic and bathymetric features develop and test models of the importance of these features in defining habitat use will be determined along with a comparison of how individuals of each species respond to annual variability in the marine environment. The physical oceanography of the Southern Ocean is inherently complex as are the biological processes that are intrinsically linked to oceanographic processes. Significant resources are currently being directed toward developing mathematical models of physical oceanographic processes with the goals of better understanding the role that the Southern Ocean plays in global climate processes, predicting the responses of ocean and global scale processes to climate change, and understanding the linkages between physical and biological oceanographic processes. These efforts have been limited by the scarcity of oceanographic data in the region, especially at high latitudes in the winter months. This study will provide new and significant oceanographic data on temperature and salinity profiles in to further the understanding of the dynamics of the upper water column of west Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf waters. Outreach activities include website development and an association with a marine education program at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

作为长寿动物，海洋哺乳动物必须能够在大的空间和时间尺度上适应食物资源的广泛变化。虽然所有海洋哺乳动物都是如此，但在南大洋，物理和生物环境的变化尤其深刻。对中上层捕食者的觅食行为和栖息地利用的基本了解需要了解这种时空变化，以及它们如何应对这些变化的信息。目前对这些联系的了解主要局限于种群水平的研究，在这些研究中，动物数量与海洋学有关。尽管这些研究提供了信息，但它们不能提供对单个动物所采用的策略的洞察，也不能提供对这些相互作用的空间或时间过程的洞察。仪器方面的最新技术进步使人们有可能超越简单地将猎物和捕食者的分布与环境特征联系起来的理解。理解导致捕食者丰度高的过程的关键是识别与水柱的不同特征相关的特定觅食行为。这项研究将通过结合准确的位置数据、潜水和觅食行为的测量、动物衍生的水柱温度和盐度数据以及现有的海洋学数据来实现这些目标。该项目将研究两种截然不同的觅食生态物种的觅食行为和栖息地利用情况，这两种物种分别是南象海豹Mironga Leonina和南极洲半岛西部环境梯度较强的地区的蟹类海豹Lobodon Carciopagus。虽然这两个物种在系统发育上有亲缘关系，但它们利用的栖息地类型截然不同，但却是相邻的。南部象海豹主要是远洋海豹，在整个南部海洋中活动，偶尔会冒险进入季节性的浮冰，而捕蟹海豹则分布在季节性的浮冰中，偶尔会冒险进入开阔水域。将确定特定觅食行为和动物运动模式与海洋学和水深测量特征的关系，并将确定和测试这些特征在确定栖息地用途方面的重要性的模型，同时将确定每个物种的个体如何对海洋环境中的年度变化作出反应。南大洋的物理海洋学本质上是复杂的，与海洋过程有内在联系的生物过程也是如此。目前正在将大量资源用于开发物理海洋过程的数学模型，目的是更好地了解南大洋在全球气候过程中的作用，预测海洋和全球尺度过程对气候变化的反应，并了解物理海洋过程和生物海洋过程之间的联系。这些努力受到该区域海洋数据匮乏的限制，尤其是在冬季的高纬度地区。这项研究将提供关于温度和盐度剖面的新的重要海洋学数据，以进一步了解南极半岛西部大陆架水域上层水柱的动态。外展活动包括网站开发和与蒙特雷海湾水族馆研究所的海洋教育项目相联系。

项目成果

A continuous-time state-space model for rapid quality control of argos locations from animal-borne tags

• DOI: 10.1186/s40462-020-00217-7
• 发表时间: 2020-07-17
• 期刊: MOVEMENT ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 4.1
• 作者: Jonsen, Ian D.;Patterson, Toby A.;McMahon, Clive R.
• 通讯作者: McMahon, Clive R.