How animals distribute themselves in space: energy landscapes of an Antarctic predator

动物的觅食效率决定了它们是否能够养育健康的后代，保持自身的状态，避开捕食者，最终提高自身的适应性。觅食效率也会影响种群动态，在能量成本最低的地方种群数量增加，而在觅食成本较高的地区种群数量减少。对动物觅食行为的大多数研究都集中在对运动的描述上。然而，动物觅食行为背后的机制仍然无法解释。动物运动跟踪和数据分析的最新进展有很大的潜力来填补我们知识上的这一空白。通过使用加速度计，栖息地的特征和动物应对变化条件的方式可以转化为运动的能量成本，而这反过来又可以被视为能量景观。在此，我建议利用新的技术和方法来揭示不同环境下不同的觅食成本如何影响不同种群的生产性能。我将使用能量景观来研究南极掠食者如何成功地适应最近的环境变化。以巴布亚企鹅为模型物种，我将研究位于最佳繁殖地（南极半岛，种群数量增加）和次优繁殖地（福克兰群岛，种群数量波动）的种群之间的觅食策略差异。通过比较能源景观的使用，我将探索哪些条件允许这个物种保持高水平的身体状况和繁殖成功，并成功地在南极地区扩张。研究结果还将有助于揭示如何适应不断变化的条件，比如当前气候变化下的预期条件。

The foraging efficiency of animals determines whether they will be able to raise healthy broods, maintain their own condition, avoid predators and ultimately increase their fitness. Foraging efficiency could also affect population dynamics, with increasing populations in places with minimized energetic costs and decreasing numbers in areas of increased foraging costs. Most studies of the foraging behaviour of animals have concentrated on the description of movements. However, the mechanisms underlying animal foraging behaviour remain mostly unexplained. Recent advances in animal movement tracking and data analyses have a great potential to fill this gap in our knowledge. With the use of accelerometers, features of the habitat and the way animals deal with variable conditions can be translated into energetic costs of movement, which, in turn, can be viewed as energy landscapes. I here propose to take advantage of the newly available technology and methods in order to reveal how variable foraging costs in different environments affect the performance of different population. I will use energy landscapes to study how an Antarctic predator has successfully adapted to recent environmental change. Using Gentoo penguins as a model species, I will study how foraging strategies differ between populations located in optimal (Antarctic Peninsula, increasing population) and suboptimal breeding sites (Falkland Islands, fluctuating populations). By comparing the use of energy landscapes, I will explore which conditions allow this species to maintain high levels of body condition and reproductive success and successfully expand in Antarctic sites. The results will also help to reveal how adapt to changing conditions, such as those expected under current climate change.