High throughput simultaneous tracking of seabirds to elucidate the environmental drivers of intraspecific competition

高通量同时跟踪海鸟以阐明种内竞争的环境驱动因素

• 批准号: NE/X012492/1
• 负责人: Samantha Patrick
• 金额: $ 10.22万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX012492%2F1
• 关键词: throughput; simultaneous; tracking; seabirds; elucidate

Tracking wild animals, such as seabirds, poses substantial logistical difficulties as they often cannot be observed directly, meaning remote tracking technology is integral to the study of natural behaviour. GPS loggers, which store animals' position at fixed time intervals, are one of the most commonly used remote tracking devices. However, they present a significant cost-to-output trade-off. Affordable GPS tags collect data archivally, and so the animal must be recaptured to retrieve the tag its data. They are also limited in memory capacity and battery life, limiting study durations to 2-3 weeks maximum, and their consequentially large size can have significant impacts on normal behaviour for many species. More expensive devices overcome these problems by remotely communicating with satellites to download data to a server, but can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds per tag, limiting the number of individuals that can be tracked at once.Reverse GPS technology overcomes many of these limitations. Under this system, small, radio frequency-emitting tags are attached to animals, which communicate with nearby receiver stations to estimate and download the location of the tagged animal. These tags are very lightweight, not limited by memory, and have very low power consumption, and so can be used to tag many individuals at once, for long durations, and at a low cost. The ATLAS Wildlife Tracking System is a revolutionary reverse GPS system that has been used on a variety of study systems across the globe to remotely track many individuals simultaneously. We propose to install the first ATLAS system in the Arctic, and conduct a proof-of-concept test of its operationality. During this project, we will establish an ATLAS network of 6 base stations, giving coverage of a 26km2 area, encapsulating a kittiwake study colony and a large fraction of the Bijleveld fjord, at the base of which lies the Nordenskjöld Glacier. This glacier is an important foraging site, but is vulnerable to many of the effects of climate change in the Arctic, including sea surface temperature rises and Atlantification (whereby warmer and saltier water extends into the Arctic ocean, altering prey availability). We will fit 200 kittiwakes with tags, a substantial fraction of the colony, to examine to what extent environmental conditions reduce or exacerbate competition in the area, and how individuals respond. Once optimised, this system could be rolled out to multiple other species, giving a wholistic overview of movement and interactions in this ecosystem.

追踪野生动物（例如海鸟）会带来重大的后勤困难，因为它们通常无法直接观察到它们，这意味着远程跟踪技术是研究自然行为不可或缺的一部分。 GPS日志记录仪是在固定时间间隔内存储动物位置的，是最常用的远程跟踪设备之一。但是，他们提出了大量的成本权衡。负担得起的GPS标签收集数据存档，因此必须重新捕获动物以检索标签其数据。它们的记忆容量和电池寿命也有限，将学习持续时间限制在最多2-3周，因此它们的尺寸较大会对许多物种的正常行为产生重大影响。更昂贵的设备通过与卫星远程通信以将数据下载到服务器，但每个标签的成本数百或数千英镑来克服这些问题，从而限制了可以立即跟踪的个人数量。反向GPS技术克服了许多限制。在此系统下，小型射频发射频率标签附在动物上，这些标签与接近接收器站进行通信，以估算和下载标记的动物的位置。这些标签非常轻巧，不受内存的限制，并且功耗非常低，因此可以用来一次将许多人在长时间且成本较低的情况下标记。 Atlas野生动植物跟踪系统是一种革命性的反向GPS系统，已在全球各种研究系统上使用，以简单地跟踪许多人。我们建议在北极安装第一个地图集系统，并对其操作性进行概念验证测试。在此项目中，我们将建立一个由6个基站组成的地图集网络，覆盖了26公里的区域，封装了Kittiwake研究菌落，而Bijleveld Fjord的大部分位于Nordenskjöld冰川的基础上。该冰川是一个重要的觅食地点，但容易受到北极气候变化的许多影响，包括海面温度升高和大量的（从而温暖和盐水延伸到北极海洋中，从而改变了猎物的可用性）。我们将与200个Kittiwake一起使用标签，这是菌落的很大一部分，以检查该地区的环境条件在多大程度上减少或加剧了该地区的竞争以及个人的反应。一旦优化，该系统就可以推广到其他多个物种，从而对该生态系统中的运动和相互作用进行全面概述。