How do Arctic seabirds coordinate parental care in changing climate?

北极正在经历比地球上任何其他生态系统更快的气候变化，这可能对该地区的生物多样性造成破坏性后果。海鸟特别脆弱，因为它们经常在远离繁殖地的地方觅食，而且父母在抚养后代时必须协调照顾。该项目将调查具有义务双亲照顾的海鸟适应觅食环境变化的能力，以及这种适应性对其伴侣和后代的影响。目标-学生将在斯瓦尔巴群岛的一个单独标记的三趾猫里萨的人口工作，结合行为观察在一个繁殖群体，跟踪觅食旅行使用生物记录技术和环境建模。主要目标是：1）量化整个繁殖季节的父母的觅食行为，并确定其对后代的健身的影响。2)确定每个父母如何回应他们的伴侣的行为，并调查环境因素对父母协调的影响。3)模拟环境约束对觅食行为的影响，以确定义务性双亲照顾如何影响物种适应气候变化的能力。新奇-觅食的行为可塑性已经在个体水平上建立了模型，但其对父母协调和适应气候变化的相关能力的影响却知之甚少。海鸟是模式物种觅食研究，但强制性双亲照顾所施加的限制在很大程度上被忽视，尽管它们的意义，了解个人觅食的决定。三趾鸥在冰川前沿觅食，随着北极以前所未有的速度变暖，这些觅食地可能在十年内消失。因此，这是一个理想的模型系统，在其中研究这些问题，并了解气候变化对海鸟和北极生态系统的可能影响。

The Arctic is experiencing more rapid climate change than any other ecosystem on earth, with potentially devastating consequences for biodiversity in the region. Seabirds are particularly vulnerable because they often forage far from breeding colonies, and because parents must coordinate their care when raising offspring. This project will investigate the ability of seabirds with obligate biparental care to adapt to changes in their foraging environment, and the consequences of this adaptability for their partner and their offspring. Objectives - The student will work on a population of individually marked kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla in Svalbard, combining behavioural observations at a breeding colony, tracking of foraging trips using biologging techniques and environmental modelling. The principal objectives are to: 1) Quantify the foraging behaviour of parents across the breeding season and determine its impact on offspring fitness. 2) Determine how each parent responds to their partner's behaviour, and investigate the impact of environmental factors on parental coordination. 3) Model the effects of environmental constraints on foraging behaviour to determine how obligate biparental care may impact on a species ability to adapt to climate change. Novelty - Behavioural plasticity in foraging has been modelled at the individual level, but its impact on parental coordination and the associated ability to adapt to climate change, is poorly understood. Seabirds are model species in foraging studies, and yet the constraints imposed by obligate biparental care have been largely ignored, despite their significance for understanding individual foraging decisions. Timeliness - Kittiwakes feed at glacial fronts and as the Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate, these foraging sites could disappear within a decade. Therefore, this is an ideal model system in which to study these questions, and to understand the likely impact of climate change on seabirds and the Arctic ecosystem.