How animals distribute themselves in space: changing energy landscapes

动物的觅食效率决定了它们是否能够养育健康的幼崽，维持自己的状况，避开捕食者，并最终增加它们的健康程度。大多数对动物觅食行为的研究都集中在对运动的描述上。然而，动物觅食行为背后的机制大多仍未得到解释。动物运动跟踪和数据分析方面的最新进展极有可能填补我们知识中的这一空白。通过使用加速计，栖息地的特征和动物应对不同条件的方式可以转化为运动的能量成本，这反过来又可以被视为能源景观(或能源景观)。在这里，我建议利用最新可用的技术和方法来揭示动物觅食的潜在机制，将Gentoo企鹅作为以其觅食行为的灵活性而闻名的模式物种。这些结果还将有助于揭示这些机制如何让动物适应不断变化的条件，比如在当前气候变化下预计会发生的情况。

The foraging efficiency of animals determines whether they will be able to raise healthy broods, maintain their own condition, avoid predators and ultimately increase their fitness. Most studies of the foraging behaviour of animals have concentrated on the description of movements. However, the mechanisms underlying animal foraging behaviour remain mostly unexplained. Recent advances in animal movement tracking and data analyses have a great potential to fill this gap in our knowledge. With the use of accelerometers, features of the habitat and the way animals deal with variable conditions can be translated into energetic costs of movement, which, in turn, can be viewed as energy landscapes (or energy-scapes). I here propose to take advantage of the newly available technology and methods in order to reveal the underlying mechanisms of animal foraging, using Gentoo Penguins as a model species known for their flexibility in foraging behaviour. The results will also help to reveal how these mechanisms allow animals to adapt to changing conditions, such as those expected under current climate change.