How animals distribute themselves in space: energy landscapes of an Antarctic predator

动物的觅食效率决定了它们是否能够养育健康的后代，保持自己的状态，避免捕食者，并最终增加它们的健康。觅食效率也可能影响种群动态，在能量成本最小的地方，种群数量增加，而在觅食成本增加的地区，种群数量减少。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，动物觅食行为的机制仍然无法解释。动物运动跟踪和数据分析的最新进展有很大的潜力来填补我们知识中的这一空白。通过使用加速度计，栖息地的特征和动物应对可变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量景观。在这里，我建议利用新的技术和方法，以揭示如何在不同的环境中的可变觅食成本影响不同的人口的表现。我将利用能源景观来研究南极捕食者如何成功地适应最近的环境变化。使用巴布亚企鹅作为一个模式物种，我将研究如何觅食策略位于最佳（南极半岛，不断增加的人口）和次优繁殖地点（福克兰群岛，波动的人口）之间的差异。通过比较能源景观的使用，我将探索哪些条件允许这个物种保持高水平的身体状况和繁殖成功，并成功地在南极地区扩张。研究结果还将有助于揭示如何适应不断变化的条件，例如在当前气候变化下预期的条件。

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. Foraging efficiency could also affect population dynamics, with increasing populations in places with minimized energetic costs and decreasing numbers in areas of increased foraging costs. 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. I here propose to take advantage of the newly available technology and methods in order to reveal how variable foraging costs in different environments affect the performance of different population. I will use energy landscapes to study how an Antarctic predator has successfully adapted to recent environmental change. Using Gentoo penguins as a model species, I will study how foraging strategies differ between populations located in optimal (Antarctic Peninsula, increasing population) and suboptimal breeding sites (Falkland Islands, fluctuating populations). By comparing the use of energy landscapes, I will explore which conditions allow this species to maintain high levels of body condition and reproductive success and successfully expand in Antarctic sites. The results will also help to reveal how adapt to changing conditions, such as those expected under current climate change.