Download or read book An Individual based Approach to the Foraging Behavior and Energetics of a Generalist Marine Predator written by Elizabeth A. McHuron and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foraging behavior is a key ecological factor that has wide-ranging implications for individual fitness, and population and ecosystem dynamics. There are multiple hierarchical levels at which foraging behavior can be studied, from broad descriptions at the species level to the lowest level of within-individual variability. Intraspecific variation in foraging behavior is increasingly recognized as both widespread and ecologically important, and the occurrence and consistency of individual variation in foraging behavior has implications for the ability of populations to adapt to environmental change. The focus of my dissertation is on quantifying inter- and intra-individual variability in foraging behavior and the energetic implications of these differences for California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), an abundant generalist predator that inhabits a dynamic ecosystem. The fine- and broad-scale foraging behavior of adult female sea lions was quantified at multiple temporal scales using bio-logging technology and stable isotope analysis. Concurrent measurements of foraging behavior and energy expenditure were used to determine the energetic implications of behavioral variability. I found that female California sea lions used three foraging strategies: a shallow epipelagic strategy, a mixed epipelagic/benthic strategy, and a deep-diving strategy. This diversity in foraging behavior has likely allowed them to be successful in such a dynamic ecosystem, as I found evidence that female sea lions switched foraging strategies in response to changes prey availability. Despite this apparent flexibility, females generally exhibited behavioral consistency across both short and long time scales, including periods of reduced prey availability. Collectively, these results indicate that female California sea lions likely do switch foraging strategies, but it is unlikely that most sea lions routinely use all three strategies. Instead, they largely appear to play it safe by consistently using similar habitats and/or dive behaviors, which may be a successful strategy for managing uncertainty in environmental conditions. These individual behavioral differences have implications for survival and fitness, as fine-scale behavior affected the rate of energy expenditure. My dissertation highlights the importance of quantifying inter- and intra-individual variation in foraging behavior, particularly as it relates to understanding the strategies that individuals and species use to cope with limited prey resources in dynamic environments.

Download or read book Individual based Approach to the Study of Predator prey Interactions in Marine Soft Bottoms written by Fiorenza Micheli and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Foraging Behavior written by Alan C. Kamil and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Foraging Behavior written by A.C. Kamil and published by Springer. This book was released on 1987-05 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foraging behavior has always been a central concern of ecology. Understanding what animals eat is clearly an essential component of under standing many ecological issues including energy flow, competition and adaptation. Theoretical and empirical developments in the late 1960's and 1970's led to a new emphasis in the study of foraging behavior, the study of individual animals in both field and laboratory. This development, in turn, led to an explosion of interest in foraging. Part of the reason for this explosion is that when foraging is studied at the individual level, it is relevant to many disciplines. Behaviorists, including ethologists and psychologists, are interested in any attempt to understand behavior. Ecologists know that a better understanding of foraging will contribute to resolving a number of important ecological issues. Anthropologists and others are applying the ideas coming out of the study of foraging behavior to problems within their disciplines. These developments led to a multidisciplinary symposium on foraging behavior, held as part of the 1978 Animal Behavior Society meetings in Seattle, Washington. Many ecologists, ethologists and psychologists participated or attended. The symposium was very successful. generating a high level of excitement. As a result, the participants decided to publish the proceedings of the symposium (Kami1 & Sargent 1981).

Download or read book Dissertation Abstracts International written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Primates and Cetaceans written by Juichi Yamagiwa and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, the editors present a view of the socioecology of primates and cetaceans in a comparative perspective to elucidate the social evolution of highly intellectual mammals in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Despite obvious differences in morphology and eco-physiology, there are many cases of comparable, sometimes strikingly similar patterns of sociobehavioral complexity. A number of long-term field studies have accumulated a substantial amount of data on the life history of various taxa, foraging ecology, social and sexual relationships, demography, and various patterns of behavior: from dynamic fission–fusion to long-term stable societies; from male-bonded to bisexually bonded to matrilineal groups. Primatologists and cetologists have come together to provide four evolutionary themes: (1) social complexity and behavioral plasticity, (2) life history strategies and social evolution, (3) the interface between behavior, demography, and conservation, and (4) selected topics in comparative behavior. These comparisons of taxa that are evolutionarily distant but live in comparable complex sociocognitive environments boost our appreciation of their sophisticated mammalian societies and can advance our understanding of the ecological factors that have shaped their social evolution. This knowledge also facilitates a better understanding of the day-to-day challenges these animals face in the human-dominated world and may improve the capacity and effectiveness of our conservation efforts.

Download or read book Individual based Modeling and Ecology written by Volker Grimm and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-28 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Individual-based models are an exciting and widely used new tool for ecology. These computational models allow scientists to explore the mechanisms through which population and ecosystem ecology arises from how individuals interact with each other and their environment. This book provides the first in-depth treatment of individual-based modeling and its use to develop theoretical understanding of how ecological systems work, an approach the authors call "individual-based ecology.? Grimm and Railsback start with a general primer on modeling: how to design models that are as simple as possible while still allowing specific problems to be solved, and how to move efficiently through a cycle of pattern-oriented model design, implementation, and analysis. Next, they address the problems of theory and conceptual framework for individual-based ecology: What is "theory"? That is, how do we develop reusable models of how system dynamics arise from characteristics of individuals? What conceptual framework do we use when the classical differential equation framework no longer applies? An extensive review illustrates the ecological problems that have been addressed with individual-based models. The authors then identify how the mechanics of building and using individual-based models differ from those of traditional science, and provide guidance on formulating, programming, and analyzing models. This book will be helpful to ecologists interested in modeling, and to other scientists interested in agent-based modeling.

Download or read book The North American Porcupine written by Uldis Roze and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Long and sympathetic watching, radio tracking, chemical analysis are all part of this naturalist's ingenious and peaceable arsenal of inquiry into the lives of porcupines."--Scientific American

Download or read book Marine Mammal Biology written by A. Rus Hoelzel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a general introduction to the biology of marine mammals, and an overview of the adaptations that have permitted mammals to succeed in the marine environment. Each chapter, written by experts in their field, will provide an up-to-date review and present the major discoveries and innovations in the field. Important technical advances such as satellite telemetry and time-depth-recorders will be described in boxes.

Download or read book Marine Mammals written by Annalisa Berta and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2005-12-14 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Berta and Sumich have succeeded yet again in creating superior marine reading! This book is a succinct yet comprehensive text devoted to the systematics, evolution, morphology, ecology, physiology, and behavior of marine mammals. The first edition, considered the leading text in the field, is required reading for all marine biologists concerned with marine mammals. Revisions include updates of citations, expansion of nearly every chapter and full color photographs. This title continues the tradition by fully expanding and updating nearly all chapters. Comprehensive, up-to-date coverage of the biology of all marine mammals Provides a phylogenetic framework that integrates phylogeny with behavior and ecology Features chapter summaries, further readings, an appendix, glossary and an extensive bibliography Exciting new color photographs and additional distribution maps

Download or read book Oceanography and Marine Biology written by R.N. Hughes and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2015-08-26 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever-increasing interest in oceanography and marine biology and their relevance to global environmental issues create a demand for authoritative reviews summarizing the results of recent research. Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review has catered to this demand since its founding by the late Harold Barnes more than 50 years ago. Its obj

Download or read book YOUMARES 8 Oceans Across Boundaries Learning from each other written by Simon Jungblut and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-29 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book presents the proceedings volume of the YOUMARES 8 conference, which took place in Kiel, Germany, in September 2017, supported by the German Association for Marine Sciences (DGM). The YOUMARES conference series is entirely bottom-up organized by and for YOUng MARine RESearchers. Qualified early career scientists moderated the scientific sessions during the conference and provided literature reviews on aspects of their research field. These reviews and the presenters’ conference abstracts are compiled here. Thus, this book discusses highly topical fields of marine research and aims to act as a source of knowledge and inspiration for further reading and research.

Download or read book Sociality The Behaviour of Group Living Animals written by Ashley Ward and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-20 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last decade has seen a surge of interest among biologists in a range of social animal phenomena, including collective behaviour and social networks. In ‘Animal Social Behaviour’, authors Ashley Ward and Michael Webster integrate the most up-to-date empirical and theoretical research to provide a new synthesis of the field, which is aimed at fellow researchers and postgraduate students on the topic. ​

Download or read book The Galapagos Marine Reserve written by Judith Denkinger and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-01-24 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on how marine systems respond to natural and anthropogenic perturbations (ENSO, overfishing, pollution, tourism, invasive species, climate-change). Authors explain in their chapters how this information can guide management and conservation actions to help orient and better manage, restore and sustain the ecosystems services and goods that are derived from the ocean, while considering the complex issues that affect the delicate nature of the Islands. This book will contribute to a new understanding of the Galapagos Islands and marine ecosystems.​

Download or read book Foraging written by David W. Stephens and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foraging is fundamental to animal survival and reproduction, yet it is much more than a simple matter of finding food; it is a biological imperative. Animals must find and consume resources to succeed, and they make extraordinary efforts to do so. For instance, pythons rarely eat, but when they do, their meals are large—as much as 60 percent larger than their own bodies. The snake’s digestive system is normally dormant, but during digestion metabolic rates can increase fortyfold. A python digesting quietly on the forest floor has the metabolic rate of thoroughbred in a dead heat. This and related foraging processes have broad applications in ecology, cognitive science, anthropology, and conservation biology—and they can be further extrapolated in economics, neurobiology, and computer science. Foraging is the first comprehensive review of the topic in more than twenty years. A monumental undertaking, this volume brings together twenty-two experts from throughout the field to offer the latest on the mechanics of foraging, modern foraging theory, and foraging ecology. The fourteen essays cover all the relevant issues, including cognition, individual behavior, caching behavior, parental behavior, antipredator behavior, social behavior, population and community ecology, herbivory, and conservation. Considering a wide range of taxa, from birds to mammals to amphibians, Foraging will be the definitive guide to the field.

Download or read book Approaches to Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Stressors on Marine Mammals written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-05-04 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Marine mammals face a large array of stressors, including loss of habitat, chemical and noise pollution, and bycatch in fishing, which alone kills hundreds of thousands of marine mammals per year globally. To discern the factors contributing to population trends, scientists must consider the full complement of threats faced by marine mammals. Once populations or ecosystems are found to be at risk of adverse impacts, it is critical to decide which combination of stressors to reduce to bring the population or ecosystem into a more favorable state. Assessing all stressors facing a marine mammal population also provides the environmental context for evaluating whether an additional activity could threaten it. Approaches to Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Stressors on Marine Mammals builds upon previous reports to assess current methodologies used for evaluating cumulative effects and identify new approaches that could improve these assessments. This review focuses on ways to quantify exposure-related changes in the behavior, health, or body condition of individual marine mammals and makes recommendations for future research initiatives.

Download or read book Marine Mammals and Noise written by W. John Richardson and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many marine mammals communicate by emitting sounds that pass through water. Such sounds can be received across great distances and can influence the behavior of these undersea creatures. In the past few decades, the oceans have become increasingly noisy, as underwater sounds from propellers, sonars, and other human activities make it difficult for marine mammals to communicate. This book discusses, among many other topics, just how well marine mammals hear, how noisy the oceans have become, and what effects these new sounds have on marine mammals. The baseline of ambient noise, the sounds produced by machines and mammals, the sensitivity of marine mammal hearing, and the reactions of marine mammals are also examined. An essential addition to any marine biologist's library, Marine Mammals and Noise will be especially appealing to marine mammalogists, researchers, policy makers and regulators, and marine biologists and oceanographers using sound in their research.