Project description
Analysing foraging behaviours of southern elephant seals and little penguins
Nearly 10 years’ worth of high-resolution bio-logging data sets collected on three marine predators (little penguins, Adélie penguins and southern elephant seals) will be analysed by the EU-funded MuFFIN project. It will study the effects of environmental changes on breeding success, predators’ foraging behaviours, decision-making and habitat use. Changes in foraging behaviours will be quantified. The project will also consider the type of foraging patches visited and the amount of energy spent. These three factors (foraging behaviours, effort spent and type of patch) will be linked to breeding success. The project will pave the way for new opportunities for the use and analysis of large high-resolution movement data for species and habitat conservation.
Objective
MuFFIN - Modelling Foraging Fitness in Marine predators
Recent technological advances have permitted the collection of novel high-frequency information about animal behaviour,
physiology and characteristics of the environment in which animals move. Such technology-driven achievements are
exciting, but it is important to analyse these data with a view to their original objectives: understanding individual behaviour,
predicting population processes and optimizing species monitoring and conservation programs. Despite a growing number of
tracked animals, long term movement dataset are a present-day achievement. As a consequence, while many studies of
animal movements are motivated by questions on population dynamics, the explicit connection between the two is rarely
attained. Through MUFFIN, I will make use of nearly ten years of high resolution bio-logging datasets collected on three
species of top marine predators moving in environments difficult to monitor: Little penguins, Adelie penguins and Southern
elephant seals. With these unique data, MUFFIN will answer questions related to effects of changes of availability of marine
resources on breeding success, predators foraging behaviour, decision making and habitat use. I will (I) quantify changes in
foraging behaviour across spatio-temporal scales, characterise type of foraging patches visited and energy spent. I will (II)
model the effect of foraging patches visited, energy spent and environment encountered aiming to understand animal
decision making, use of environmental features and changes in space used. I will (III) link foraging behaviours, effort spent
and type of patch to breeding success, highlighting fitness consequences of changes of behavioural patterns. In
accomplishing MUFFIN's objectives I will open powerful new avenues for the use and analysis of large high resolution
movement data. These approaches are key for research seeking to optimise strategies for habitat management, species
monito
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
75794 Paris
France