Antarctic Pack Ice Seals: Ecological Interactions with Prey and the Environment

南极浮冰海豹：与猎物和环境的生态相互作用

• 批准号: 9816016
• 负责人: Langdon Quetin
• 金额: $ 35.07万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-05-01 至 2003-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9816016&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Antarctic; Pack; Ice; Seals; Ecological

9816016 QUETINThe pack ice region surrounding Antarctica contains at least fifty percent of the world's population of seals, comprising about eighty percent of the world's total pinniped biomass. As a group, these seals are among the dominant top predators in Southern Ocean ecosystems, and the fluctuation in their abundance, growth patterns, life histories, and behavior provide a potential source of information about environmental variability integrated over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This proposal was developed as part of the international Antarctic Pack Ice Seals (APIS) program, which is aimed to better understand the ecological relationships between the distribution of pack ice seals and their environment. During January-February, 2000, a research cruise through the pack ice zone of the eastern Ross Sea and western Amundsen Sea will be conducted to survey and sample along six transects perpendicular to the continental shelf. Each of these transects will pass through five environmental sampling strata: continental shelf zone, Antarctic slope front, pelagic zone, the ice edge front, and the open water outside the pack ice zone. All zones but open water will be ice-covered to some degree. Surveys along each transect will gather data on bathymetry, hydrography, sea ice dynamics and characteristics, phytoplankton and ice algae stocks, prey species (e.g., fish, cephalopods and euphausiids), and seal distribution, abundance and diet. This physical and trophic approach to investigating ecological interactions among pack ice seals, prey and the physical environment will allow the interdisciplinary research team to test the hypothesis that there are measurable physical and biological features in the Southern Ocean that result in area of high biological activity by upper trophic level predators. Better insight into the interplay among pack ice seals and biological and physical features of Antarctic marine ecosystems will allow for a better prediction of fluctuation in seal population in the context of environmental change.

9816016 QUETIN 南极洲周围的浮冰地区至少有世界海豹数量的 50%，约占世界鳍足类动物总生物量的 80%。 作为一个群体，这些海豹是南大洋生态系统中占主导地位的顶级捕食者，它们的数量、生长模式、生活史和行为的波动提供了有关在广泛的时空范围内综合环境变化的潜在信息来源。秤。 该提案是国际南极浮冰海豹（APIS）计划的一部分，旨在更好地了解浮冰海豹的分布与其环境之间的生态关系。 2000年1月至2月，将进行科考巡航，穿越东罗斯海和西阿蒙森海的浮冰区，沿垂直于大陆架的6条横断面进行调查和采样。 每条样线都将经过五个环境采样层：大陆架区、南极坡锋、远洋区、冰缘锋和浮冰区外的开阔水域。 除开放水域外的所有区域都将在一定程度上被冰覆盖。 沿每个横断面的调查将收集有关水深测量、水文地理、海冰动态和特征、浮游植物和冰藻种群、猎物物种（例如鱼类、头足类动物和磷虾）以及海豹分布、丰度和饮食的数据。这种研究浮冰海豹、猎物和物理环境之间生态相互作用的物理和营养方法将使跨学科研究小组能够检验这样的假设：南大洋存在可测量的物理和生物特征，这些特征导致了高生物活动区域上营养级捕食者。 更好地了解浮冰海豹与南极海洋生态系统的生物和物理特征之间的相互作用，将有助于更好地预测环境变化背景下海豹种群的波动。