Project description
Deep-diving toothed whales’ feeding behaviour for conservation efforts
Deep-diving toothed whales are vital for healthy marine ecosystems. However, increased human activities such as deep-sea fishing and mining disrupt their prey, harming their fitness and ecosystem balance. Models linking disturbances to whale fitness depend on energy budget data from undisturbed individuals, but the lack of such data limits conservation efforts. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the FRONT project will, for the first time, use advanced tagging technology and motion analysis to quantify feeding behaviour and foraging effort in deep-diving toothed whales and to estimate their energy requirements and hunting costs. This research will provide baseline energy budget data for population consequences of disturbance (PCoD) models.
Objective
Deep-diving toothed whales are mega-predators that supposedly shape and maintain healthy marine ecosystems. Human activity is on the rise in these ecosystems due to deep-sea fishing and mining, which can alter the prey landscape of toothed whales and therefore negatively affect their fitness with potential trophic cascades on entire deep-water ecosystems. To address such concerns, models for Population Consequences of Disturbance (PCoD) have been developed linking disturbance to fitness of individual whales and entire populations. While the robustness of these models relies on data of energy budgets from undisturbed individuals, a shortage of related, quantitative measures precludes the effective use of these models and hence the efficient conservation of these predators. Through FRONT, I propose to fill this important knowledge gap by applying an innovative combination of state-of-the-art tagging technology and motion analysis to, for the first time in deep-diving toothed whales, (i) quantify fine-scale feeding behaviour and foraging effort, and (ii) estimate overall energy requirements and hunting costs. As a result, FRONT will generate novel data on baseline energy budgets that are crucial bioenergetic parameters for PCoD models. By informing these models, FRONT will be of direct relevance to the European Union’s (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive for maintaining healthy populations of these apex predators through the management of underwater anthropogenic disturbance.
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 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)
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.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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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.