Optimal Foraging Theory as a Model to Examine the Relationship Between Relative Prey Accessibility and Foraging Energetics in Stellar Sea Lions (Eumetopias Jubatus) in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea PDF Download

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Optimal Foraging Theory as a Model to Examine the Relationship Between Relative Prey Accessibility and Foraging Energetics in Stellar Sea Lions (Eumetopias Jubatus) in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea

Optimal Foraging Theory as a Model to Examine the Relationship Between Relative Prey Accessibility and Foraging Energetics in Stellar Sea Lions (Eumetopias Jubatus) in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea PDF Author: Leslie Anne Cornick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Steller's sea lion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
"The western stock of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) (SSL) along the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) has continuously declined over the past three decades, and is now listed as endangered. While the causes of this decline are not well understood, nutritional stress, resulting in excessive juvenile mortality, is the leading hypothesis. Optimal foraging theory predicts that predators should change their dive behavior (foraging strategy) as prey availability changes. Relative prey accessibility (RPA, the ability of an individual SSL to access prey during a dive cycle) is likely a crucial causal link between hypothesized reduced prey biomass resulting from commercial fishing activity and depressed foraging efficiency of SSL, but cannot be controlled in the wild, and is impossible to accurately quantify at the individual level. This study, for the first time, experimentally validates prey availability-foraging behavior relationships previously hypothesized by optimality and foraging theory, but never before experimentally tested for a diving mammal. I employed a combined approach of predictive model development and controlled experiments. Testable predictions were determined by developing a bioenergetics-based model of individual dive behavior for aerobic dives of otariids. To determine the relationship between RPA and dive behavior, I examined how dive duration, foraging time, surface interval, percent time foraging, submerged, surface time, dive efficiency, and foraging efficiency varied with changes in simulated RPA in optimal foraging experiments performed with three seven, year-old SSL (two females, one male) held captive at the Alaska Sea life Center in Seward, AK. RPA had a significant positive effect on dive duration, foraging time, percent time foraging, and relative foraging efficiency. The dive model accurately predicted the observed effect of changing RPA on dive behavior and foraging efficiency. A population-based model was also developed in order to predict the effects of varying regimes of commercial fisheries activity on SSL population trends, based upon an estimate of annual SSL energetic requirements. The model accurately portrayed SSL abundance trends predicted by published projections, but failed to implicate competition with the commercial groundfish fishery in Alaska as a cause of the decline of SSL"--Leaves iii-iv.

Optimal Foraging Theory as a Model to Examine the Relationship Between Relative Prey Accessibility and Foraging Energetics in Stellar Sea Lions (Eumetopias Jubatus) in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea

Optimal Foraging Theory as a Model to Examine the Relationship Between Relative Prey Accessibility and Foraging Energetics in Stellar Sea Lions (Eumetopias Jubatus) in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea PDF Author: Leslie Anne Cornick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Steller's sea lion
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
"The western stock of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) (SSL) along the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) has continuously declined over the past three decades, and is now listed as endangered. While the causes of this decline are not well understood, nutritional stress, resulting in excessive juvenile mortality, is the leading hypothesis. Optimal foraging theory predicts that predators should change their dive behavior (foraging strategy) as prey availability changes. Relative prey accessibility (RPA, the ability of an individual SSL to access prey during a dive cycle) is likely a crucial causal link between hypothesized reduced prey biomass resulting from commercial fishing activity and depressed foraging efficiency of SSL, but cannot be controlled in the wild, and is impossible to accurately quantify at the individual level. This study, for the first time, experimentally validates prey availability-foraging behavior relationships previously hypothesized by optimality and foraging theory, but never before experimentally tested for a diving mammal. I employed a combined approach of predictive model development and controlled experiments. Testable predictions were determined by developing a bioenergetics-based model of individual dive behavior for aerobic dives of otariids. To determine the relationship between RPA and dive behavior, I examined how dive duration, foraging time, surface interval, percent time foraging, submerged, surface time, dive efficiency, and foraging efficiency varied with changes in simulated RPA in optimal foraging experiments performed with three seven, year-old SSL (two females, one male) held captive at the Alaska Sea life Center in Seward, AK. RPA had a significant positive effect on dive duration, foraging time, percent time foraging, and relative foraging efficiency. The dive model accurately predicted the observed effect of changing RPA on dive behavior and foraging efficiency. A population-based model was also developed in order to predict the effects of varying regimes of commercial fisheries activity on SSL population trends, based upon an estimate of annual SSL energetic requirements. The model accurately portrayed SSL abundance trends predicted by published projections, but failed to implicate competition with the commercial groundfish fishery in Alaska as a cause of the decline of SSL"--Leaves iii-iv.

Dissertation Abstracts International

Dissertation Abstracts International PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 972

Book Description


Foraging Theory

Foraging Theory PDF Author: David W. Stephens
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691206791
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
This account of the current state of foraging theory is also a valuable description of the use of optimality theory in behavioral ecology in general. Organizing and introducing the main research themes in economic analyses of animal feeding behavior, the authors analyze the empirical evidence bearing on foraging models and answer criticisms of optimality modeling. They explain the rationale for applying optimality models to the strategies and mechanics of foraging and present the basic "average-rate maximizing" models and their extensions. The work discusses new directions in foraging research: incorporating incomplete information and risk-sensitive behavior in foraging models; analyzing trade-offs, such as nutrient requirements and the threat of being eaten while foraging; formulating dynamic models; and building constrained optimization models that assume that foragers can use only simple "rules of thumb." As an analysis of these and earlier research developments and as a contribution to debates about the role of theory in evolutionary biology. Foraging Theory will appeal to a wide range of readers, from students to research professionals, in behavioral ecology, population and community ecology, animal behavior, and animal psychology, and especially to those planning empirical tests of foraging models.

Social Foraging Theory

Social Foraging Theory PDF Author: Luc-Alain Giraldeau
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691188343
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 379

Book Description
Although there is extensive literature in the field of behavioral ecology that attempts to explain foraging of individuals, social foraging--the ways in which animals search and compete for food in groups--has been relatively neglected. This book redresses that situation by providing both a synthesis of the existing literature and a new theory of social foraging. Giraldeau and Caraco develop models informed by game theory that offer a new framework for analysis. Social Foraging Theory contains the most comprehensive theoretical approach to its subject, coupled with quantitative methods that will underpin future work in the field. The new models and approaches that are outlined here will encourage new research directions and applications. To date, the analysis of social foraging has lacked unifying themes, clear recognition of the problems inherent in the study of social foraging, and consistent interaction between theory and experiments. This book identifies social foraging as an economic interaction between the actions of individuals and those of other foragers. This interdependence raises complex questions about the size of foraging groups, the diversity of resources used, and the propensity of group members to exploit each other or forage cooperatively. The models developed in the book will allow researchers to test their own approaches and predictions. Many years in development, Social Foraging Theory will interest researchers and graduate students in such areas as behavioral ecology, population ecology, evolutionary biology, and wildlife management.

Tropical Pinnipeds

Tropical Pinnipeds PDF Author: Juan J. Alava
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351647636
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
Pinnipeds are a fascinating group of marine mammals that play a crucial role as apex predators and sentinels of the functioning and health of marine ecosystems. They are found in the most extreme environments from the Polar regions to the tropics. Pinnipeds are comprised of about 34 species, and of those at least 25% live permanently in tropical zones. This book reviews and updates current research on the biology, marine ecology, bio-monitoring, and conservation of tropical pinniped populations, including their behavior, anthropogenic stressors, and health. It also looks at challenges to be faced for the conservation of tropical pinnipeds, many of which are threatened species.

Marine Mammals

Marine Mammals PDF Author: Randall W. Davis
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 331998280X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
This comprehensive book provides new insights into the morphological, metabolic, thermoregulatory, locomotory, diving, sensory, feeding, and sleep adaptations of Cetacea (whales and dolphins), Pinnipedia (seals, sea lions and walrus), Sirenia (manatees and dugongs) and sea otters for an aquatic life. Each chapter reviews the discoveries from previous studies and integrates recent research using new techniques and technology. Readers will gain an understanding of the remarkable adaptations that enable marine mammals to spend all or most of their lives at sea, often while hunting prey at depth.

Marine Mammal Welfare

Marine Mammal Welfare PDF Author: Andy Butterworth
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319469940
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 625

Book Description
Marine mammals attract human interest – sometimes this interest is benign or positive – whale watching, conservation programmes for whales, seals, otters, and efforts to clear beaches of marine debris are seen as proactive steps to support these animals. However, there are many forces operating to affect adversely the lives of whales, seals, manatees, otters and polar bears – and this book explores how the welfare of marine mammals has been affected and how they have adapted, moved, responded and sometimes suffered as a result of the changing marine and human world around them. Marine mammal welfare addresses the welfare effects of marine debris, of human traffic in the oceans, of noise, of hunting, of whale watching and tourism, and of some of the less obvious impacts on marine mammals – on their social structures, on their behaviours and migration, and also of the effects on captivity for animals kept in zoos and aquaria. There is much to think and talk about – how marine mammals respond in a world dramatically influenced by man, how are their social structures affected and how is their welfare impacted?

Marine Mammal Populations and Ocean Noise

Marine Mammal Populations and Ocean Noise PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309133491
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Book Description
Attention has been drawn to the subject of how ocean noise affects marine mammals by a series of marine mammal strandings, lawsuits, and legislative hearings, and most recently, the report from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy. One way to assess the impact of ocean noise is to consider whether it causes changes in animal behavior that are "biologically significant," that is, those that affect an animal's ability to grow, survive, and reproduce. This report offers a conceptual model designed to clarify which marine mammal behaviors are biologically significant for conservation purposes. The report is intended to help scientists and policymakers interpret provisions of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Marine Mammal Physiology

Marine Mammal Physiology PDF Author: Michael A. Castellini
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1482242699
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
Suppose you were designing a marine mammal. What would you need to think about to allow it to live in the ocean? How would you keep it warm? What would you design to allow it to dive for very long periods to extreme depths? Where would it find water to drink? How would you minimize the cost of swimming, and how would it find its prey in the deep an

Steller Sea Lion Research

Steller Sea Lion Research PDF Author: I. L. Boyd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Steller's sea lion
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description