Antarctic Pack Ice Seals: Ecological Interactions with Prey and the Environment

9815973 tors南极洲周围的浮冰地区拥有世界上至少50%的海豹，占世界上鳍状生物总量的80%。作为一个群体，这些海豹是南大洋生态系统中占主导地位的顶级捕食者之一，它们的丰度、生长模式、生活史和行为的波动为大范围时空尺度上的环境变化提供了潜在的信息来源。这项提案是国际南极浮冰海豹（APIS）计划的一部分，该计划旨在更好地了解浮冰海豹的分布与其环境之间的生态关系。2000年1月至2月期间，将在罗斯海东部和阿蒙森海西部的浮冰带进行一次研究巡航，沿着与大陆架垂直的六条横断面进行调查和取样。每条样带将穿过五个环境采样层：大陆架带、南极坡锋、远洋带、冰缘锋和浮冰带外的开阔水域。除了开放水域以外的所有区域都将在一定程度上被冰覆盖。沿着每个样带进行的调查将收集有关测深、水文、海冰动态和特征、浮游植物和冰藻储量、猎物种类（如鱼类、头足类和腹足类）以及海豹分布、丰度和饮食的数据。这种研究浮冰海豹、猎物和自然环境之间生态相互作用的物理和营养方法，将使跨学科研究小组能够验证这样一个假设，即在南大洋中存在可测量的物理和生物特征，这些特征导致了高营养级捕食者的高生物活动区域。更好地了解浮冰海豹与南极海洋生态系统的生物和物理特征之间的相互作用，将有助于更好地预测环境变化背景下海豹数量的波动。

9815973TORRESThe pack ice region surrounding Antarctica contains at least fifty percent of the world's population of seals, comprising about eighty percent of the world's total pinniped biomass. As a group, these seals are among the dominant top predators in Southern Ocean ecosystems, and the fluctuation in their abundance, growth patterns, life histories, and behavior provide a potential source of information about environmental variability integrated over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This proposal was developed as part of the international Antarctic Pack Ice Seals (APIS) program, which is aimed to better understand the ecological relationships between the distribution of pack ice seals and their environment. During January-February, 2000, a research cruise through the pack ice zone of the eastern Ross Sea and western Amundsen Sea will be conducted to survey and sample along six transects perpendicular to the continental shelf. Each of these transects will pass through five environmental sampling strata: continental shelf zone, Antarctic slope front, pelagic zone, the ice edge front, and the open water outside the pack ice zone. All zones but open water will be ice-covered to some degree. Surveys along each transect will gather data on bathymetry, hydrography, sea ice dynamics and characteristics, phytoplankton and ice algae stocks, prey species (e.g., fish, cephalopods and euphausiids), and seal distribution, abundance and diet. This physical and trophic approach to investigating ecological interactions among pack ice seals, prey and the physical environment will allow the interdisciplinary research team to test the hypothesis that there are measurable physical and biological features in the Southern Ocean that result in area of high biological activity by upper trophic level predators. Better insight into the interplay among pack ice seals and biological and physical features of Antarctic marine ecosystems will allow for a better prediction of fluctuation in seal population in the context of environmental change.