Effects of maternal foraging success and oceanographic variation on offspring behaviour and survival in the southern elephant seal

母亲觅食成功和海洋变化对南象海豹后代行为和生存的影响。少年生存的关键决定因素的哺乳动物种群的性能，但这方面的直接决定因素很少被建立在大型，长寿的捕食者。南方象海豹，其集中的哺乳努力和显着分离的能量获取（海上觅食）和支出（陆地哺乳）提供了一个理想的模型，调查这些因素。在这项研究中，我们调查的分区产前性能（在母亲获得的脂肪）相对于海洋生产力的时空变化和这种支出对后代的条件和生存的影响。在这里，能量传递的最后一个缺失环节及其对后代的影响将是该项目的主要成果。

Effects of maternal foraging success and oceanographic variation on offspring behaviour and survival in the southern elephant seal. Juvenile survival is the key determinant of mammalian population performance, but the proximate determinants of this have rarely been established in large, long-lived predators. Southern elephant seals, with their concentrated lactation effort and marked separation of energy acquisition (at-sea foraging) and expenditure (on-land lactation) provide an ideal model for investigating these factors. In this study, we investigate the partitioning of pre-partum performance (fat acquired in mothers) relative to spatial-temporal variation in ocean productivity and the effect of this expenditure on offspring condition and survival. Here, the final missing link of energy transfer and its effects on offspring will be a major outcome of this project.