How do Arctic seabirds coordinate parental care in changing climate?

北极正在经历比地球上任何其他生态系统都更快的气候变化，这可能会对该地区的生物多样性造成毁灭性的后果。海鸟特别脆弱，因为它们经常在远离繁殖地的地方觅食，而且父母在抚养后代时必须协调他们的照顾。该项目将调查有义务双亲照顾的海鸟适应觅食环境变化的能力，以及这种适应对它们的配偶和后代的后果。目标-学生将在斯瓦尔巴特群岛的一个单独标记的猫尾猫种群中工作，结合繁殖群体的行为观察，使用生物记录技术跟踪觅食旅行和环境建模。主要目标是：1)量化父母在整个繁殖季节的觅食行为，并确定其对后代健康的影响。2)确定父母对伴侣行为的反应，并调查环境因素对父母协调的影响。3)模拟环境限制对觅食行为的影响，以确定专职的双亲照料可能如何影响物种适应气候变化的能力。新颖性--觅食的行为可塑性已经在个体水平上进行了建模，但它对父母协调和相关适应气候变化能力的影响却知之甚少。海鸟是觅食研究中的模式物种，然而，尽管海鸟对理解个体觅食决定具有重要意义，但义务双亲照顾施加的限制在很大程度上被忽视了。及时性-小猫在冰川前缘觅食，随着北极以前所未有的速度变暖，这些觅食地点可能在十年内消失。因此，这是研究这些问题和了解气候变化对海鸟和北极生态系统可能产生的影响的理想模式系统。

The Arctic is experiencing more rapid climate change than any other ecosystem on earth, with potentially devastating consequences for biodiversity in the region. Seabirds are particularly vulnerable because they often forage far from breeding colonies, and because parents must coordinate their care when raising offspring. This project will investigate the ability of seabirds with obligate biparental care to adapt to changes in their foraging environment, and the consequences of this adaptability for their partner and their offspring. Objectives - The student will work on a population of individually marked kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla in Svalbard, combining behavioural observations at a breeding colony, tracking of foraging trips using biologging techniques and environmental modelling. The principal objectives are to: 1) Quantify the foraging behaviour of parents across the breeding season and determine its impact on offspring fitness. 2) Determine how each parent responds to their partner's behaviour, and investigate the impact of environmental factors on parental coordination. 3) Model the effects of environmental constraints on foraging behaviour to determine how obligate biparental care may impact on a species ability to adapt to climate change. Novelty - Behavioural plasticity in foraging has been modelled at the individual level, but its impact on parental coordination and the associated ability to adapt to climate change, is poorly understood. Seabirds are model species in foraging studies, and yet the constraints imposed by obligate biparental care have been largely ignored, despite their significance for understanding individual foraging decisions. Timeliness - Kittiwakes feed at glacial fronts and as the Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate, these foraging sites could disappear within a decade. Therefore, this is an ideal model system in which to study these questions, and to understand the likely impact of climate change on seabirds and the Arctic ecosystem.