Using energetics to link movement with individual fitness across timescales

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Energy is the currency of ecology and a key variable that bridges movement and fitness across time scales. To successfully reproduce, an individual must expend energy to obtain sufficient energy for themselves and their offspring. At the finest scales, net energy intake links movement decisions during prey capture to body condition (an index of fitness). At the scale of months, investments during one stage of the annual cycle can impact energy reserves at the end of that stage, and energetics provides a mechanism for carryover effects throughout the annual cycle. At the scale of a lifetime, plasticity in annual energy investment in reproduction, especially plasticity related to age, can regulate changes in physiological condition linked to survival and ultimately influencing lifetime reproductive success. I propose to examine the link between movement and energy expenditure at each of these time scales in two species of long-lived seabirds. I will use doubly-labelled water and heart rate loggers to validate the use of T3-GPS-magnetometer-accelerometry as a proxy for energy expenditure. I will also use camera loggers to validate the use of accelerometry as a proxy for energy intake. With these novel tools, I will then investigate how net energy intake at short time scales is related to dietary specialization. Next, I will manipulate energy and time costs of breeding via handicapping, food supplementation and delaying/advancing reproduction, and measure behaviour and physiological costs (feather condition, oxidative stress, telomeres) during non-breeding stages. Finally, I will examine whether (1) plasticity in energy expenditure across years is linked to lifetime reproductive success and (2) how individual response to challenging energetic conditions varies with age. The field of movement ecology is rapidly growing and my research will impact this field by developing a paradigm for understanding not only where animals are, but why they are where they are. The research program will be carried out by 1 PDF, 2 PhD and 3 MSc students that will learn a variety of skills in field biology, ecophysiology, Northern studies, behavioural ecology, biologging and demography that will be sought-after by employers from across a number of fields.