Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking data (RAATD): International Crabeater and Weddell Seal Tracking Data Sets

确定南极捕食者对栖息地的基本需求，对于了解它们将如何应对商业渔业和气候变化带来的挑战至关重要。只有当与物理过程的潜在联系与动物运动相关时，才能实现这种理解。作为由SCAR鸟类和海洋哺乳动物专家组组织的国际南极跟踪数据回顾性分析（RAATD）的一部分，本研究将整理和综合食蟹海豹，Lobodon carcinophagus和Weddell海豹，Leptonychotes wedelli的跟踪数据。这些数据将与挪威、英国、德国、澳大利亚和美国的研究人员从南大洋收集的所有现有数据相结合。这些数据将使用一种常见的分析方法进行分析，并综合成这两个物种在南大洋的天气观。每个物种的潜水和运动模式将被检查。此外，还将确定每个物种和区域的总栖息地范围和核心生境利用模式。本研究将根据每个物种“热点”的物理和生物属性，为每个物种开发全球栖息地地图，然后叠加所有物种特定地图，以确定具有生态意义的多物种区域。更广泛的影响包括支持和培训博士后学者，制作一个公开可用的数据库以及参与国际数据综合工作。

Identifying the basic habitat requirements of Antarctic predators is fundamental to understanding how they will respond to the human-induced challenges of commercial fisheries and climate change. This understanding can only be achieved if the underlying linkages to physical processes are related to animal movements. As part of the international Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) organized by the SCAR Expert Group of Birds and Marine Mammals, this research will collate and synthesize tracking data from crabeater seals, Lobodon carcinophagus, and Weddell seals, Leptonychotes weddelli. These data will be combined with all available data from the Southern Ocean that has been collected by researchers from Norway, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and the USA. These data will be analyzed using a common analytical approach and synthesized into a synoptic view of these two species across the Southern Ocean. The diving and movement patterns will be examined for each species. As well, the total home range and core habitat utilization patterns for each species and region will be determined. This study will develop global habitat maps for each species based on physical and biological attributes of their "hot-spots" and then overlay all the species specific maps to identify multi-species areas of ecological significance. Broader impacts include support and training for a postdoctoral scholar, the production of a publicly available database and the participation in an international data synthesis effort.