Dare to differ : individual foraging success in marine predators, from the largest seal to small penguins ...
The oceans are undergoing rapid alterations due to human activities, making it crucial to predict how ecosystem shifts will affect marine predators. Short-term indicators of the fitness consequences of a changing environment, such as individual foraging performance, are essential to guide timely con...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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The University of St Andrews
2021
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17630/sta/975 https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/30125 |
| Summary: | The oceans are undergoing rapid alterations due to human activities, making it crucial to predict how ecosystem shifts will affect marine predators. Short-term indicators of the fitness consequences of a changing environment, such as individual foraging performance, are essential to guide timely conservation measures but there is a dearth of methods for quantifying the individual foraging strategies and efficiency of aquatic animals. This thesis documents the development of three innovative multi-sensor biologging devices and explores their application to uncover the foraging performance of Southern Ocean predators. A tag containing wide-bandwidth light and movement sensors was developed to measure anti-predator bioluminescent signals emitted by prey as they are hunted by southern elephant seals. Results indicate that some seals target large aggregations of bioluminescent prey, but inter-individual variability is wide. The need for details on the prey size, quality and ease of capture prompted the ... |
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