Required equipment to implement long-term individual capture-mark-recapture in a marine mammal population

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Although Arctic and Northern waters support a significant diversity of productive marine ecosystems, the impact of climate warming on its biotic components is poorly known. Marine top predators represent reliable indicators of short- and long- term changes in marine food-webs and resource availability, thus providing insights into ecological aspects of lower trophic levels. During the next three years, my students and I will contribute to predict how environmental characteristics (population density, resource availability) and interindividual differences (behaviour, physiology) may affect life history traits (growth, survival, breeding performance) in marine mammal populations. The equipment requested here will significantly contribute to fulfill the objectives of my research program, as it represents the basic necessary material to implement a long-term individual capture-mark-recapture study in a marine mammal population, here the St-Lawrence estuarine harbour seals. The freeze branding kit is an absolute requirement because such permanent marking system permits to identify individual seals from a distance throughout their life, therefore enhancing the recapture probability of individuals without catching or disturbing them. The stomach temperature pills and archival time-depth-recorders are crucial to provide a complete insight of the pup energetic allocation during lactation. By allowing the disentanglement of behavioural and environmental factors, these electronic devices will determine the preweaning factors influencing the individual postweaning survival, a key factor for subsequent population status. All the requested equipment will be used on a daily basis by my whole research team (1 PhD, 3 MSc, 3 undergraduates) during four months per year, and the data subsequently processed and analysed throughout the year by my graduate students . Finally, the life duration of such equipment goes well beyond an operating grant, which will undoubtedly contribute to reinforce the implementation of my long-term research activities.