What's for dinner? Oceanographic drivers of Manx shearwater chick provisioning and growth

已知海洋学特征（例如锋面、环流和漩涡）会聚集中上层饲料鱼，从而影响海洋捕食者的空间利用1，2。这些特征是动态的，它们特征的变化（例如强度、持久性、位置）会对猎物的可获得性、觅食努力和繁殖成功产生影响3。NERC的SHENZHEN项目目前正在量化物理海洋学特征和猎物可用性之间的关联和相互作用如何影响马恩岛剪水觅食能量学，这是一种已知与海洋学特征密切相关的远洋潜水海鸟。然而，围绕曼克斯剪水禽的饮食组成存在显着的知识差距4，部分原因是之前研究这些鸟类饮食的方法具有侵入性。DNA元条形码和侵入性较小的取样技术正在改变这些物种的饮食研究。此外，关于海洋学特征的变化如何驱动特定猎物物种的可用性（即，鱿鱼和小型鲱类鱼）的关键觅食区。这一点很重要，因为被捕食物种的热值差异很大，而且主要由“垃圾食品”组成的饮食对海鸟后代的生长和生存产生了重大影响。这个多学科的项目将确定海洋学特征和饲料鱼类物种之间的细微联系，以及量化的关键驱动因素，使用生物记录，eDNA分析，形态测量和物理海洋学的组合。物理海洋学特征决定了剪水觅食的深度和努力吗？2.在觅食之旅中，食物的大小和饮食是否取决于海洋物理特征？3.问题1和2是否解释了小鸡的生长？

Oceanographic features (e.g. fronts, gyres and eddies) are known to aggregate pelagic forage fish andthereby shape the space use of marine predators1,2. These features are dynamic and changes in theircharacteristics (e.g. strength, persistence, position) has consequences for prey availability, foraging effortand breeding success3. The NERC SHEAR project is currently quantifying how the association andinteraction between physical oceanographic features and prey availability impacts Manx shearwaterforaging energetics, a pelagic diving seabird known to forage in close association with oceanographicfeatures. However, there is a significant knowledge gap surrounding the diet composition of Manxshearwaters4 which is partly because previous methods for studying the diet of these birds have beeninvasive. DNA metabarcoding and less invasive sampling techniques are now transforming diet studies ofsuch species5. Furthermore, less is known about how variation in oceanographic features drive theavailability of specific prey species (i.e., squid and small Clupeid fish) within key foraging areas. This isimportant as prey species differ significantly in calorific value, and diets consisting predominantly of 'junkfood' have had significant consequences for the growth and survival of seabird offspring6. Thismultidisciplinary project will identify the fine-scale links between characteristics of oceanographic featuresand species of forage fish as well as quantify the key drivers of shearwater chick growth using acombination of biologging, eDNA analysis, morphometric measurements, and physical oceanography.Specifically, this project has three core questions:1. Does the characteristics of physical oceanographic features determine shearwater foraging depthand effort?2. Is meal size and diet determined by the characteristics of physical oceanographic features targetedduring foraging trips?3. Is chick growth explained by Qs 1 & 2?