High throughput simultaneous tracking of seabirds to elucidate the environmental drivers of intraspecific competition

跟踪野生动物，如海鸟，带来了很大的后勤困难，因为它们往往不能直接观察到，这意味着远程跟踪技术是研究自然行为不可或缺的一部分。以固定时间间隔存储动物位置的GPS记录器是最常用的远程跟踪设备之一。然而，它们带来了重大的成本产出权衡。价格实惠的GPS标签以档案方式收集数据，因此必须重新捕获动物以检索标签的数据。它们的记忆容量和电池寿命也有限，研究时间最多只能持续2-3周，而且它们的大尺寸会对许多物种的正常行为产生重大影响。更昂贵的设备通过与卫星远程通信将数据下载到服务器来克服这些问题，但每个标签可能要花费数百或数千英镑，这限制了一次可以跟踪的个人数量。反向GPS技术克服了许多这些限制。在这个系统中，小的射频发射标签被贴在动物身上，它与附近的接收站通信，以估计和下载被标签动物的位置。这些标签非常轻，不受内存的限制，并且功耗非常低，因此可以用于一次标记许多个人，持续时间长，成本低。ATLAS野生动物跟踪系统是一种革命性的反向GPS系统，已在全球各种研究系统中使用，可以同时远程跟踪许多个体。我们建议在北极地区安装首个ATLAS系统，并对其可操作性进行概念验证测试。在这个项目中，我们将建立一个由6个基站组成的ATLAS网络，覆盖26平方公里的区域，包括一个三脚鸥研究群和Bijleveld峡湾的大部分地区，峡湾的底部是Nordenskjöld冰川。这个冰川是一个重要的觅食地点，但容易受到北极气候变化的许多影响，包括海面温度上升和大西洋化（即温暖和更咸的水延伸到北冰洋，改变了猎物的可用性）。我们将给200只三趾鸥贴上标签，这是三趾鸥种群的很大一部分，以检查环境条件在多大程度上减少或加剧了该地区的竞争，以及个体如何应对。一旦优化，这个系统就可以推广到其他多个物种，从而全面了解这个生态系统中的运动和相互作用。

Tracking wild animals, such as seabirds, poses substantial logistical difficulties as they often cannot be observed directly, meaning remote tracking technology is integral to the study of natural behaviour. GPS loggers, which store animals' position at fixed time intervals, are one of the most commonly used remote tracking devices. However, they present a significant cost-to-output trade-off. Affordable GPS tags collect data archivally, and so the animal must be recaptured to retrieve the tag its data. They are also limited in memory capacity and battery life, limiting study durations to 2-3 weeks maximum, and their consequentially large size can have significant impacts on normal behaviour for many species. More expensive devices overcome these problems by remotely communicating with satellites to download data to a server, but can cost hundreds or thousands of pounds per tag, limiting the number of individuals that can be tracked at once.Reverse GPS technology overcomes many of these limitations. Under this system, small, radio frequency-emitting tags are attached to animals, which communicate with nearby receiver stations to estimate and download the location of the tagged animal. These tags are very lightweight, not limited by memory, and have very low power consumption, and so can be used to tag many individuals at once, for long durations, and at a low cost. The ATLAS Wildlife Tracking System is a revolutionary reverse GPS system that has been used on a variety of study systems across the globe to remotely track many individuals simultaneously. We propose to install the first ATLAS system in the Arctic, and conduct a proof-of-concept test of its operationality. During this project, we will establish an ATLAS network of 6 base stations, giving coverage of a 26km2 area, encapsulating a kittiwake study colony and a large fraction of the Bijleveld fjord, at the base of which lies the Nordenskjöld Glacier. This glacier is an important foraging site, but is vulnerable to many of the effects of climate change in the Arctic, including sea surface temperature rises and Atlantification (whereby warmer and saltier water extends into the Arctic ocean, altering prey availability). We will fit 200 kittiwakes with tags, a substantial fraction of the colony, to examine to what extent environmental conditions reduce or exacerbate competition in the area, and how individuals respond. Once optimised, this system could be rolled out to multiple other species, giving a wholistic overview of movement and interactions in this ecosystem.