Project description
Can Arctic whales keep up with a changing ocean?
The Arctic is undergoing transformation as warming waters and disappearing sea ice dismantle food webs. This threatens the availability of the nutrient-rich prey that top predators need to survive. Gaining insight is critical for forecasting the resilience of the ecosystem and designing conservation policies. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FEAST project will investigate how climate-driven changes in Arctic copepods, the main food source of bowhead whales, affect the whales’ ability to meet their energy needs. Using animal-borne sonar technology and field measurements, the project will identify the prey conditions required for feeding and determine the thresholds beyond which whales face energy deficits, providing knowledge to support Arctic ecosystem management.
Objective
The Arctic is rapidly shifting toward a more temperate state. Calanus copepods, a key trophic link in Arctic food webs, regulate energy transfer from primary producers to ecologically and economically important fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals. Poleward expansion of smaller, lipid-poor Atlantic copepods is gradually replacing larger, lipid-rich Arctic species. The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), the largest predator endemic to the Arctic, is a sentinel species heavily reliant on sea ice and seasonal availability of lipid-rich copepods. Highly specialised in the exploitation of dense copepod layers during narrow seasonal windows, bowhead whales employ an efficient yet high-risk foraging strategy that makes them heavily dependent on prey increasingly susceptible to rapid warming. I will investigate the relationship between bowhead whales and their primary prey, Calanus spp., to identify the critical prey quality thresholds that determine energetic success (net gain) or failure (deficit) in this predator. FEAST will i) measure bowhead whale energy requirements, ii) pioneer the use of animal-borne sonar tags on baleen whales to quantify energetic intake of Calanus from the perspective of their most dependent predator, and iii) identify prey biomass and foraging efficiency thresholds that dictate success or failure. I will determine how real-time prey conditions dictate the fine-scale foraging decisions and efficiency of a highly dependent giga-predator and hence identify under what conditions it will fail or succeed. In doing so, I will reveal the energetic margins underpinning bowhead whale vulnerability in a rapidly changing Arctic. By leveraging two interdependent levels of the food web most vulnerable to ecosystem alteration, FEAST will equip managers with a mechanistic framework to monitor the consequences of climate change, contributing to Good Environmental Status (GES) assessments and supporting sustainable management of fisheries, shipping and tourism.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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.
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.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries fisheries
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology ornithology
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy cetology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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.
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
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.