Drivers and demographic consequences of seabird foraging strategies in a changing environment

不断变化的环境中海鸟觅食策略的驱动因素和人口统计后果

• 批准号: 2882488
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Bangor University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2882488
• 关键词: Drivers; demographic; consequences; seabird; foraging

Coastal marine ecosystems are undergoing rapid change due to multiple anthropogenic impacts including overfishing, climate change, pollution and renewable energy generation (1). These changes have important impacts on marine organisms, including top predators such as seabirds, and have led to increased concern for protected populations (2). Understanding how seabirds adjust their behaviour with respect to spatio-temporal variation in their environment and food resources to shape energetics and demography is crucial for predicting their ability to cope with future environmental change, and for devising effective conservation measures (3). Individual foraging decisions are shaped by a range of environmental drivers including availability of suitable habitat, oceanographic and weather conditions (4, 5, 6). Foraging strategies are also influenced by intrinsic factors such as sex, body condition, breeding stage, or interactions with other individuals including use of social information and negotiation of offspring provisioning effort between breeding partners (7, 8). However, while plasticity in seabird foraging behaviour is well documented, robust understanding of how key drivers shape responses to environmental change is lacking which hinders our ability to quantify and predict impacts of anthropogenic activities on protected species, delaying our ability to deliver offshore renewable energy capacity needed to meet net zero targets.This project will use one of the most extensive datasets on seabird at-sea activity, location and demography in the world, spanning 35 years, as well as additional targeted data collection to determine key drivers and demographic consequences of foraging strategies in an inshore, benthic-foraging species, the European shag. The project aims to: (1) identify drivers of foraging behaviour across a range of environmental conditions and population densities; (2) determine the consequences of foraging strategies for productivity and survival; and (3) forecast impacts of change in productivity and survival on population trajectories under different scenarios of future human activity.

由于多种人为影响，包括过度捕获，气候变化，污染和可再生能源产生（1），沿海海洋生态系统正在迅速变化。这些变化对海洋生物有重要影响，包括海鸟等顶级捕食者，并引起了人们对受保护人群的关注（2）。了解海鸟如何根据其环境中的时空变异和食物资源来塑造能量学和人口统计学的行为，对于预测他们应对未来的环境变化以及设计有效的保护措施的能力至关重要（3）。个人觅食决策是由一系列环境驱动因素塑造的，包括适当的栖息地，海洋和天气条件（4、5、6）。觅食策略还受到内在因素的影响，例如性别，身体状况，育种阶段或与其他人的互动，包括使用社会信息以及在育种伴侣之间进行后代供应工作的谈判（7，8）。然而，尽管海鸟觅食行为的可塑性有充分的文献证明，但对关键驱动因素如何塑造对环境变化的反应的强烈理解是缺乏限制我们量化和预测人类学活动对受保护物种的影响和预测影响的能力，从而延迟了我们在越来越多的可再生能源能力来满足净零目标所需的可再生能量的能力。多年，以及其他针对性的数据收集，以确定在近海底栖生物中觅食策略的关键驱动因素和人口统计学后果。该项目的目的是：（1）确定各种环境条件和人口密度的觅食行为的驱动因素； （2）确定觅食策略对生产力和生存的后果； （3）在未来人类活动的不同情况下，生产力和生存变化对人口轨迹的变化的预测影响。