Regional Science and Technology Fund
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Esta é uma presença online oficial do Governo dos Açores
Assessing the energetic consequences of disturbance on a marine top predator
- StateONGOING
- NameMariana Silva
- Entity hostInstituto de Investigação em Ciências do Mar – OKEANOS
- University awarding the degreeUniversity of the Azores
- Science Networks
Objectives
The main goal of the study is to understand how natural and human-induced disturbances
impact the energetic requirements of vulnerable sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) inhabiting
the Azores archipelago, and to identify threshold conditions at which disturbance may negatively impact the species. Specifically, the project is aimed to first develop a bioenergetic model to estimate energy acquisition and expenditure, as well as the minimum foraging success rate of sperm whales, based on their theoretical energetic requirements. Then to use the model to simulate two prey structure change scenarios and understand whale’s vulnerability to such environmental changes. Finally, to characterize the spatio-temporal extent of cumulative whale watching exposure and quantify how this exposure effects the energy acquisition of sperm whales under different scenarios of ww intensity.
