2021-2022 USAP Field Season
Project Detail Project TitleNSFGEO-NERC Collaborative Research: Effects of a changing climate on the habitat utilization, foraging ecology and distribution of crabeater seals Summary
Event Number:
Program Director:
ASC POC/Implementer: Principal Investigator(s)
Dr. Luis Alfredo Huckstadt
Location
Supporting Stations: RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer DescriptionThis project will focus on crabeater seal ecology to examine how seals may be affected by climate-induced match-mismatch interactions with their prey. The main aim of this study is to determine how match-mismatch between seals and krill relate to the predictability of ice cover in time and space, which, in turn, acts to enhance the availability of krill.
Field Season OverviewA six-member science team will deploy on the RV/IB Nathaniel B. Palmer to outfit at least 40 crabeater seals with satellite tags in the pack ice. A minimum of ten individual seals will be sampled at each of two areas – one in the northern Bransfield Strait area and one in the southern area west of Alexander Island. The team will use a combination of Unoccupied Aerial System surveys and satellite imagery to census the population of seals across a latitudinal gradient along the western Antarctic Peninsula. Deploying Team Members
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