Collaborative Research: Linking Predator Behavior and Resource Distributions: Penguin-directed Exploration of an Ecological Hotspot

该研究项目将使用专门设计的自主水下航行器（AUV）来调查阿德利企鹅和巴布亚企鹅（捕食者）与其主要食物来源南极磷虾（猎物）之间的相互作用。虽然人们早就知道企鹅以磷虾为食，但关于它们如何寻找食物和目标个体猎物的细节却不太清楚。磷虾聚集成大群，这些群体的大小或深度可能会影响企鹅的觅食行为。同样，企鹅的进食行为可能会因环境、磷虾群以及其他猎物和捕食者物种的存在而有所不同。该项目将使用专门的智能AUV同时收集企鹅、猎物和环境条件的高分辨率观测数据。数据将揭示企鹅在关键的夏季养鸡期成功觅食的策略。这将改善对企鹅种群如何应对迅速变暖的南极半岛西部地区不断变化的环境条件的预测。更好地了解个体行为如何塑造食物网结构也可以为其他海洋生态系统的保护和管理工作提供信息。该项目有一个强大的公众教育和推广计划与桦树和蒙特雷湾水族馆。以前的研究表明，亚中尺度的变化（1-10公里）在南极磷虾密度和结构影响觅食行为的呼吸空气的捕食者。 然而，很少有了解磷虾聚集特性是如何与丰富的精细空间尺度上，这些模式是如何影响的栖息地，或猎物的特性如何影响捕食者的觅食行为。这些数据差距仍然存在，因为它是极具挑战性的，同时收集在一个单独的磷虾补丁和单一的觅食事件的规模捕食者和猎物的详细数据。在以往成功努力的基础上，该项目将把回声测深仪纳入自主水下航行器，以便同时收集海洋学变量和猎物和企鹅的多频声散射。这将允许量化的环境在规模的个别觅食事件的企鹅在关键的50天以上的小鸡饲养期。工作将集中在帕尔默站附近，长期的研究为捕食者和猎物种群趋势提供了重要的见解。该项目将收集的新数据将测试有关企鹅猎物选择和觅食行为如何受到其海洋栖息地的物理和生物特征影响的假设。通过在个体觅食事件的规模上解决个体企鹅、它们的猎物和栖息地之间的动态关系，这项研究将开始揭示调节资源可用性的重要过程，并确定是什么使该地区成为一个有利可图的觅食栖息地和繁殖地。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的支持影响审查标准。

This research project will use specially designed autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to investigate interactions between Adelie and Gentoo penguins (the predators) and their primary food source, Antarctic krill (prey). While it has long been known that penguins feed on krill, details about how they search for food and target individual prey items is less well understood. Krill aggregate in large swarms, and the size or the depth of these swarms may influence the feeding behavior of penguins. Similarly, penguin feeding behaviors may differ based on characteristics of the environment, krill swarms, and the presence of other prey and predator species. This project will use specialized smart AUVs to simultaneously collect high-resolution observations of penguins, their prey, and environmental conditions. Data will shed light on strategies used by penguins prove foraging success during the critical summer chick-rearing period. This will improve predictions of how penguin populations may respond to changing environmental conditions in the rapidly warming Western Antarctic Peninsula region. Greater understanding of how individual behaviors shape food web structure can also inform conservation and management efforts in other marine ecosystems. This project has a robust public education and outreach plan linked with the Birch and Monterey Bay Aquariums.Previous studies have shown that sub-mesoscale variability (1-10 km) in Antarctic krill densities and structure impact the foraging behavior of air-breathing predators. However, there is little understanding of how krill aggregation characteristics are linked to abundance on fine spatial scales, how these patterns are influenced by the habitat, or how prey characteristics influences the foraging behavior of predators. These data gaps remain because it is extremely challenging to collect detailed data on predators and prey simultaneously at the scale of an individual krill patch and single foraging event. Building on previously successful efforts, this project will integrate echosounders into autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), so that oceanographic variables and multi-frequency acoustic scattering from both prey and penguins can be collected simultaneously. This will allow for quantification of the environment at the scale of individual foraging events made by penguins during the critical 50+ day chick-rearing period. Work will be centered near Palmer Station, where long-term studies have provided significant insight into predator and prey population trends. The new data to be collected by this project will test hypotheses about how penguin prey selection and foraging behaviors are influenced by physical and biological features of their ocean habitat at extremely fine scale. By addressing the dynamic relationship between individual penguins, their prey, and habitat at the scale of individual foraging events, this study will begin to reveal the important processes regulating resource availability and identify what makes this region a profitable foraging habitat and breeding location.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.