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.

由于长寿动物，海洋哺乳动物必须能够在大型空间和时间尺度上适应食物资源的广泛差异。尽管所有海洋哺乳动物都是如此，但在南大洋中，物理和生物环境的变化尤其深刻。对上层掠食者的觅食行为和栖息地利用的基本理解需要了解这种空间和时间变化，再加上它们如何应对这些变化的信息。当前对这些关联的理解主要限于人群水平研究，在该研究中，动物丰度与海洋学相关。尽管这些研究是有益的，但它们无法提供对单个动物采用的策略的见解，也无法提供有关这些相互作用的空间或时间过程的见解。仪器的最新技术进步使得能够将理解扩展到猎物和捕食者分布与环境特征的简单联系之外。理解导致高捕食者丰度的过程的关键是鉴定与水柱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，动物来源的水柱温度和盐度数据以及可用的海洋数据来实现这些目标。该项目将研究两种对比觅食生态学的觅食行为和栖息地利用，南方大象海豹，米洛恩加·莱昂纳（Mirounga Leonina）和蟹酸盐密封，南极西部半岛的洛博登癌（Lobodon Carcinophagus），即强烈的环境梯度的一个地区。尽管这两个物种在系统发育上相关，但它们利用了实质上不同但相邻的栖息地类型。南方大象的印章主要是浮力，在整个南大洋中移动，偶尔冒险进入季节性的冰冰，而Crabeater密封件则在整个季节性包装冰上范围，偶尔冒险进入开放水域。特定的觅食行为和动物运动模式与海洋学和测深特征的关系发展，并测试这些特征在定义栖息地使用中的重要性的模型，并比较每个物种的个体对海洋环境中的年度变异性的反应。南大洋的物理海洋学本质上是复杂的，与海洋过程本质上有关的生物过程也是如此。目前，正在大量资源致力于开发物理海洋过程的数学模型，以更好地了解南方海洋在全球气候过程中所扮演的作用，预测海洋和全球规模过程对气候变化的反应，并了解物理和生物海洋学过程之间的联系。这些努力受到该地区海洋数据缺乏的限制，尤其是在冬季的高纬度地区。这项研究将提供有关温度和盐度特征的新的大量海洋学数据，以进一步了解南极西部半岛大陆架子水的上水柱的动力学。外展活动包括网站开发以及与蒙特雷湾水族馆研究所的海洋教育计划的关联。

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.