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

尽管北极和北部水域支持着丰富多样的生产性海洋生态系统，但人们对气候变暖对其生物成分的影响知之甚少。海洋顶级捕食者代表了海洋食物网和资源可用性的短期和长期变化的可靠指标，从而提供了对低营养水平生态方面的见解。在接下来的三年里，我和我的学生将致力于预测环境特征（种群密度，资源可用性）和个体间差异（行为，生理）如何影响海洋哺乳动物种群的生活史特征（生长，生存，繁殖性能）。这里所要求的设备将极大地有助于实现我的研究计划的目标，因为它代表了对海洋哺乳动物种群进行长期个体捕获-标记-再捕获研究的基本必要材料，这里是圣劳伦斯河口海港海豹。冷冻标记套件是绝对需要的，因为这种永久性标记系统允许从远处识别单个海豹，从而提高个体的重新捕获概率，而不会捕获或干扰它们。胃温丸和档案时间-深度记录仪是至关重要的，提供了一个完整的洞察幼犬在哺乳期间的能量分配。通过消除行为和环境因素的纠缠，这些电子设备将确定影响个体断奶后存活率的断奶前因素，这是随后种群状况的关键因素。我的整个研究团队（1名博士，3名硕士，3名本科生）将在每年4个月的时间里每天使用所有要求的设备，然后由我的研究生全年处理和分析数据。最后，这些设备的使用寿命远远超出了运营经费，这无疑将有助于加强我长期研究活动的实施。

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.