Project description
Quantifying the energetics of deep-sea whale foraging
Foraging is essential for energy transfer. However, data on energetic transfer between deep-diving predators, such as whales, and their prey are limited. Existing models require simultaneous data on predator and prey energetics, which are rarely available. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the D3EP-FINS project will quantify the energetics of deep-sea foraging in Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus), deep-diving specialists that primarily hunt deep-sea squid. Utilising a unique dataset from the Azores, the project will develop a stochastic dynamic programming model. It will examine the impacts of foraging by collecting movement and acoustic data from biologging devices and analysing a comprehensive prey dataset, including environmental assessments and dietary DNA, to understand deep-sea prey fields.
Objective
Foraging is the key energetic currency transfer system governing survival, reproduction, and population viability. Thus, individual foraging success scale directly to population dynamics. Yet in the deep sea, quantitative knowledge of predator-prey energetic transfer is almost entirely absent. D3EP-FINS addresses this gap by quantifying for the first time energetics of deep-sea foraging by large top predators. This is achieved by developing a stochastic dynamic programming model of Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus), deep-diving specialists on deep-sea squid. Existing frameworks quantify energetic trade-offs and scale findings to population-level effects but require concurrent data on predator and prey energetics, which are rarely available for deep-diving whales. As a result, these frameworks cannot yet accurately predict population-level consequences for deep-diving whales. I will use an exceptional dataset from the Azores, where Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) foraging behaviour has been studied alongside prey distribution, density, and energy content, giving a unique holistic setting to study foraging decisions of a deep-diving predator. Fine-scale movement and acoustic data from biologging devices allow investigation of foraging consequences, while a comprehensive prey dataset, including environmental DNA prey community assessments, dietary DNA from faecal samples, acoustic monitoring, and calorific measurements, offers rare insight into prey fields in the deep sea. D3EP-FINS pursues three objectives: 1. quantify the energetics of foraging in deep-sea top predators, 2. scale individual outcomes to population-level processes, and 3. predict consequences of environmental variability and anthropogenic disturbance. The proposed project, D3EP-FINS, provides critical insight into predator-prey dynamics and delivers a framework to assess energetic impacts of foraging disruptions, with key implications for conservation of data-poor and elusive deep-diving whales.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy cetology
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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KY16 9AJ ST ANDREWS
United Kingdom
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