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) 来研究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，但人们对它们如何寻找食物和瞄准单个猎物的细节却知之甚少。磷虾聚集成大群，这些群的大小或深度可能会影响企鹅的摄食行为。同样，企鹅的摄食行为可能会因环境特征、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、其猎物和环境条件的高分辨率观测结果。数据将揭示企鹅所使用的策略，证明在关键的夏季育雏期间觅食是成功的。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。该项目有一个与 Birch 和 Monterey Bay 水族馆相关的强有力的公共教育和外展计划。之前的研究表明，南极磷虾密度和结构的亚中尺度变化（1-10 公里）会影响呼吸空气的捕食者的觅食行为。 然而，人们对磷虾聚集特征如何与精细空间尺度上的丰度相关、这些模式如何受到栖息地的影响、或者猎物特征如何影响捕食者的觅食行为知之甚少。这些数据差距仍然存在，因为在单个磷虾斑块和单个觅食事件的规模上同时收集捕食者和猎物的详细数据极具挑战性。在先前成功努力的基础上，该项目将把回声测深仪集成到自主水下航行器（AUV）中，以便可以同时收集海洋变量和来自猎物和企鹅的多频声学散射。这将有助于对企鹅在关键的 50 天雏鸟饲养期间进行的个体觅食事件的规模进行环境量化。工作将集中在帕尔默站附近，那里的长期研究为捕食者和猎物的种群趋势提供了重要的见解。该项目收集的新数据将在极其精细的尺度上检验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企鹅个体、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有利可图的觅食栖息地和繁殖地点。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.