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

合作研究：将捕食者行为与资源分布联系起来：企鹅引导的生态热点探索

• 批准号: 1744885
• 负责人: Mark Moline
• 金额: $ 48.85万
• 依托单位: University of Delaware
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1744885&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Linking; Predator; Behavior

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.

该研究项目将使用专门设计的自动驾驶水下车辆（AUV）来调查阿德莉和绅士企鹅（捕食者）及其主要食物来源南极磷虾（猎物）之间的相互作用。虽然长期以来已经知道企鹅以奎师勒为食，但有关他们如何寻找食物和针对单个猎物物品的细节知之甚少。磷虾堆积大群，这些群的大小或深度可能会影响企鹅的喂养行为。同样，企鹅喂养行为可能取决于环境的特征，磷虾群以及其他猎物和捕食者物种的存在。该项目将使用专门的智能AUV来同时收集企鹅，猎物和环境条件的高分辨率观察。数据将阐明企鹅使用的策略证明在关键的夏季养鸡期间取得了成功。这将改善对企鹅种群如何应对迅速变暖的西南极半岛地区环境状况变化的预测。对个人行为如何塑造食物网络结构的更多了解也可以为其他海洋生态系统的保护和管理工作提供信息。该项目具有与桦木和蒙特利湾水族馆有关的强大公共教育和外展计划。预防研究表明，南极磷虾密度的次级尺度可变性（1-10公里）影响了空气呼吸掠食者的觅食行为。 但是，对磷虾聚集特征的了解几乎没有理解与精细空间尺度上的丰富性，这些模式如何受到栖息地的影响或猎物特征如何影响捕食者的觅食行为。这些数据差距仍然存在，因为在单个磷虾补丁和单个觅食事件的规模上同时收集有关捕食者和猎物的详细数据非常具有挑战性。在以前成功的努力的基础上，该项目将将回声器集成到自动驾驶水下车辆（AUV）中，以便可以同时收集来自猎物和企鹅的海洋变量和多频声音散射。这将允许在关键的50多天养鸡期间企鹅提出的个体觅食事件的规模量化环境。工作将集中在帕尔默站附近，长期研究为捕食者和猎物人口趋势提供了重大见解。该项目要收集的新数据将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学特征的影响的假设。通过解决单个企鹅，他们的猎物和栖息地之间的动态关系，本研究将开始揭示规范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的法定任务，并通过评估智力效果，并通过评估了基金会的范围。