Monitoring variability of marine environment by using top predators as observational platforms.

海洋顶级捕食者将成为精细监测海洋环境变化的有效工具。为了使其成为观测平台并评估其可行性，我们利用生物遥测技术测量了环境温度、海雀和鸬鹚的潜水行为和觅食位置。对海雀和企鹅潜水持续时间的研究、日本鸬鹚和海鸠在海上觅食行为的研究以及对犀牛Aukiets的饮食和繁殖成功的5年研究的综述表明：1）应考虑生理限制，2）建议测量觅食行为的个体差异，3）常规的长期育种生物学工作有时非常有用，4）同时测量捕食者的觅食行为和物理环境可以告诉我们捕食者的细尺度反应。

Marine top predators will be efficient tools to monitor variability of marine environment at fine scale. To make them observational platforms and evaluate its feasibility, we measured ambient temperature, diving behavior and foraging location of auks and cormorants by biotelemetry techniques. A review study of dive duration in auks and penguins, researches on at sea foraging behavior of Japanese cormorants and Brunnich's Guillemots, and a 5 year work on diet and breeding success of Rhinoceros Aukiets suggest that ; 1) physiological constraints should be considered, 2) measurement of individual variation in foraging behavior is recommended, 3) conventional long term works on breeding biology are sometimes very useful, 4) simultaneous measurements of foraging behavior and physical environments could tell us fine scale response of predator.