This project is a one-year feasibility study that will use animal-borne integrated digital cameras and time-depth recorders (TDRs) to correlate direct observations of underwater behavior of bearded seals (Erignathus barbatus) with profiles. The focus will be on their foraging ecology and the affect foraging has on the benthic community through bioturbation. Dive profiles obtained by TDRs will be correlated with behavior and assigned ecological roles, such as foraging, traveling, and resting. Other than walruses, bearded seals are the only other northern pinniped to feed predominantly upon benthic prey. Their foraging ecology has been largely overlooked, despite their large population. The objectives of the research are to: 1) characterize the foraging tactics of hunting bearded seals and the effect that prey type has on prey capture tactics and sediment bioturbation, and 2) characterize the diving behavior of free-ranging bearded seals and assign ecological roles to dive profiles. Animal-borne integrated digital cameras and TDRs will record foraging locations, habitat, search mode, pursuit behavior, prey capture tactics, and prey handling time. Deployed cameras will also record prey type, the frequency, and durations of these foraging behaviors for each prey type consumed, and the degree of bioturbation to the seafloor. Individual seals will be used to record the behavior of other seals, in addition to their own behavior, by simultaneously tagging lactating females and their pups. Intellectual Merits: The research will advance our knowledge of fine-scale foraging ecology in marine carnivores, and the ecological role of diving behavior by marine vertebrates. Although bearded seals are an important benthic forager, and they outnumber walruses, few foraging data for bearded seals are available. The impact their foraging has on the benthic community is unknown. Benthic foraging by bearded seals likely results in substantial bioturbation, and may be an important process for recycling carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients trapped in the sediment. Because polar bears prey intensely upon Erignathus, bearded seals are an important trophic link between the characteristically short food webs of marine and terrestrial arctic ecosystems. Understanding the biology of ice seals is also important in assessing the impact of global warming on arctic ecosystems. This study will influence agencies & non-government organizations as to how to best protect Arctic marine ecosystems. Broader Impacts: This research will integrate research and education at the graduate, undergraduate, and high school levels and encourage underrepresented minorities to enter science. The Principal Investigator will work with local science teachers to use the data collected to enhance the marine science curriculum at a local high school with a predominantly minority student population. Research infrastructure will be enhanced by international collaborations between Texan and Norwegian researchers. Presentations in the popular literature, media, scientific meetings, and publications in scientific journals, by both the Principal Investigator and Norwegian collaborators, will disseminate data to the scientific community. In addition, Polaria,Troms, Norway, an international educational center that presents the findings of polar research to the public, will display data from the research. Polaria is visited by ~125,000 people/year and has a strong educational impact. The data will also be disseminated to indigenous peoples of the Arctic in Barrow, AK, and others who rely upon bearded seals, and other ice seals, for subsistance.
