| Summary: | Understanding the diet and trophic relationships of animals in space and time, and itsimplications for population abundance and distributions, is a central problem in ecology. Inthe marine environment, the dietary study of marine mammal and avian species is impededby the lack of information on their foraging strategies during the non-breeding period, whenindividuals migrate from common breeding areas to remote feeding grounds. Moreover, thespatial distribution of males, females and their offspring can differ considerably due tocontrasting reproductive requirements and physiological constraints, respectively. Seasonalconstraints therefore may influence the spatial distribution of abundant, migratory species,causing the food web structure, energy and nutrient flow within a given system to fluctuateaccordingly.
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