Foraging Efficiency and resilience in bowheAd whales using Sonar Tagscore
FEAST · Horizon Europe grant · 2026-09-01–2028-08-31
EC contribution
Total cost
Beneficiaries
About the data
Source: CORDIS (official EU open data), Horizon Europe. Framework HORIZON · call HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF · scheme HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF · topic HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF-01-01. CORDIS record →
Objective
The Arctic is rapidly shifting toward a more temperate state. Calanus copepods, a key trophic link in Arctic food webs, regulate energy transfer from primary producers to ecologically and economically important fishes, seabirds, and marine mammals. Poleward expansion of smaller, lipid-poor Atlantic copepods is gradually replacing larger, lipid-rich Arctic species. The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus), the largest predator endemic to the Arctic, is a sentinel species heavily reliant on sea ice and seasonal availability of lipid-rich copepods. Highly specialised in the exploitation of dense copepod layers during narrow seasonal windows, bowhead whales employ an efficient yet high-risk foraging strategy that makes them heavily dependent on prey increasingly susceptible to rapid warming. I will investigate the relationship between bowhead whales and their primary prey, Calanus spp., to identify the critical prey quality thresholds that determine energetic success (net gain) or failure (deficit) in this predator. FEAST will i) measure bowhead whale energy requirements, ii) pioneer the use of animal-borne sonar tags on baleen whales to quantify energetic intake of Calanus from the perspective of their most dependent predator, and iii) identify prey biomass and foraging efficiency thresholds that dictate success or failure. I will determine how real-time prey conditions dictate the fine-scale foraging decisions and efficiency of a highly dependent giga-predator and hence identify under what conditions it will fail or succeed. In doing so, I will reveal the energetic margins underpinning bowhead whale vulnerability in a rapidly changing Arctic. By leveraging two interdependent levels of the food web most vulnerable to ecosystem alteration, FEAST will equip managers with a mechanistic framework to monitor the consequences of climate change, contributing to Good Environmental Status (GES) assessments and supporting sustainable management of fisheries, shipping and tourism.
Beneficiaries (1)
| Organisation | Country | Role | EC contribution | SME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AARHUS UNIVERSITET | DK | coordinator | €263,393 |
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