Applying High-resolution GPS Tracking to Characterize Sensory Foraging Strategies of the Black-browed Albatross, a Top Predator of the Southern Ocean Ecosystem

应用高分辨率 GPS 跟踪来表征南大洋生态系统顶级捕食者黑眉信天翁的感官觅食策略

• 批准号: 1142084
• 负责人: Gabrielle Nevitt
• 金额: $ 39.55万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1142084&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Applying; resolution; GPS; Tracking; Characterize

With 70% of the Earth's surface being covered by oceans, a longstanding question of interest to the ecology of migratory seabirds is how they locate their prey across such vast distances. The project seeks to investigate the sensory strategies used in the foraging behavior of procellariiform seabirds, such as petrels, albatrosses and shearwaters. These birds routinely travel over thousands of kilometers of open ocean, apparently using their pronounced olfactory abilities (known to be up to a million times more sensitive than other birds) to identify productive marine areas or locate prey. High resolution tracking, such as provided by miniaturized GPS data loggers (+/- 5m; 10 second sampling), are needed to gain insight into some of the questions as to the sensory mechanisms birds use to locate their prey. Combining these tracking and positioning devices along with stomach temperature recorders capable of indicating prey ingestion, will provide a wealth of new behavioral information. Species specific foraging based on prey specific odors (e.g. krill vs fisheries vs. squid), and mixed strategies using olfaction and visual cues appear to be different for these different marine predators. Albatrosses are increasingly an endangered species globally, and additional information as to their foraging strategies might lead to better conservation measures such as the avoidance of by-catch by long-line fisheries.Intimate details of each species foraging activity patterns during the day and night and insight into the conservation of these top predators in pelagic Southern Ocean ecosystems are a few of the research directions these novel fine scale resolution approaches are yielding.

由于地球表面的70%被海洋覆盖，迁徙海鸟的生态学长期以来一直关注的问题是它们如何在如此遥远的距离内找到猎物。该项目旨在研究在觅食行为中使用的感觉策略，如海燕，信天翁和剪水。这些鸟类经常在数千公里的公海上旅行，显然是利用它们明显的嗅觉能力（已知比其他鸟类灵敏100万倍）来识别生产性海洋区域或定位猎物。需要高分辨率跟踪，例如由小型化GPS数据记录器（+/-5米; 10秒采样）提供的跟踪，以深入了解鸟类用于定位猎物的感觉机制的一些问题。结合这些跟踪和定位设备沿着与胃温度记录器能够指示猎物的摄入，将提供丰富的新的行为信息。基于猎物特定气味的物种特定觅食（例如磷虾与渔业与鱿鱼），以及使用嗅觉和视觉线索的混合策略对于这些不同的海洋捕食者似乎是不同的。信天翁在全球范围内日益成为濒危物种，关于其觅食策略的更多信息可能会导致更好的保护措施，例如避免长期捕捞的副渔获物，线渔业。每一个物种的觅食活动模式在白天和晚上的亲密细节，并深入了解这些顶级捕食者在远洋南大洋生态系统的保护是一些研究方向，这些新的细尺度解决办法正在产生。