Associations between baleen whales and their prey in the northern Scotia Arc

斯科舍岛北部须鲸与其猎物之间的联系

• 批准号: 2739928
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2739928
• 关键词: Associations; between; baleen; whales; their

Sub-Antarctic South Georgia is a marine biodiversity hotspot, and was historically an epicentre of modern whaling, with >170,000 whales killed locally. A century later, krill-feeding humpback whales have become a common sight at South Georgia again. South Georgia is a hotspot and key fishery area for Antarctic krill, characteristics of which are annually monitored by BAS (https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/poets-wcb/). Krill are keystone species, forming swarms of different sizes and shapes depending on their age/size, time of day and location. Krill in this region also have some unique characteristics compared to other Southern Ocean areas, including a predominance of larger-sized animals. New whale sighting datasets, collected alongside active acoustic surveys, provide an opportunity to assess the spatial interactions between whales and krill in a key krill fishery area, also an area of international significance for whales. Are there prey swarm aspects (depth, size, type, location) that most strongly predict whale presence? Do these vary between shelf and offshore waters? This project will generate new data on the spatial associations between whales and krill, and krill characteristics that are most important for whales in the northern Scotia Arc.

亚南极的南格鲁吉亚是海洋生物多样性的热点，历史上是现代捕鲸的中心，当地有超过170，000头鲸鱼被杀。一个世纪后，在南格鲁吉亚，以磷虾为食的座头鲸再次成为常见的景象。南格鲁吉亚是南极磷虾的一个热点和关键渔业区，其特征每年由BAS进行监测（https：//www.bas.ac.uk/project/poets-wcb/）。磷虾是关键物种，根据它们的年龄/大小，一天中的时间和位置形成不同大小和形状的群体。与其他南大洋地区相比，该地区的磷虾也有一些独特的特点，包括大型动物占主导地位。与主动声学调查一起收集的新的鲸鱼目击数据集提供了一个机会，可以评估鲸鱼和磷虾之间在一个关键的磷虾渔业区的空间相互作用，这也是一个对鲸鱼具有国际意义的领域。是否有猎物群方面（深度，大小，类型，位置），最强烈地预测鲸鱼的存在？这些在大陆架和近海沃茨之间是否不同？该项目将产生关于鲸鱼和磷虾之间空间关系的新数据，以及对北方斯科舍弧鲸鱼最重要的磷虾特征。