The principal aim of the Eutopia programme is to conduct a large-scale, long-term multi-faceted research campaign in the Atlantic and Mediterranean to elucidate the movements and behaviour of ecologically unique, wide-ranging marine vertebrate predators. The primary aim is to determine how these species view and utilise key habitats in the ocean, such as fronts, and how movements, and consequently spatial abundance and distribution patterns may alter in response to environmental change. The key focus of Eutopia is to determine behavioural ‘rules’ underlying movements in relation to dynamic changes in habitat quality, identify essential habitats or ‘hotspots’, whether there are similar (general) behaviour patterns among diverse marine vertebrates, how these are linked to environment, and how a knowledge of this can be used to develop predictive spatial-population models.

OBJECTIVES

1. Determine the movement and behaviour patterns of diverse marine vertebrate predators – sharks, teleosts, sea turtles, seabirds, seals and cetaceans – across multiple space-time scales using state-of-the-art telemetry technology;

2. Investigate the relationships between the structure of movement trajectories and changes in environmental fields [phytoplankton, zooplankton, SST, sea height (altimetry)] to identify the spectrum of animal-environment interactions;

3. Identify ecologically important habitat using individual-based location data and test whether dynamic spatial-distribution patterns among diverse predators are consistently linked to ocean productivity ‘hot spots’;

4. Determine [deduce] the behavioural mechanisms ('rules') underlying observed multi-scale movements and assess general features of behaviour across species by applying novel analytical tools with a strong emphasis on multi-scale random walks and state-space modelling;

5. Undertake model simulations of how the spatial distribution of diverse predators under different environmental change and exploitation scenarios shifts in relation to short- and long-term fluctuations in environmental fields;

6. Communicate the findings and consequences to the wider community through outreach activities based on an interactive website and a schools programme.

WHY EUTOPIA?

Marine vertebrate predators play a key role in shaping the structure, distribution and abundance of prey populations, which in turn has important consequences for the functioning of ecosystems. Characteristically, large predators such as pelagic fish, sea turtles, birds and mammals search widely for resources and concentrate activity in productive habitats with associated high biodiversity. As such, they have the potential through their movement and behaviour patterns to signal wider-scale changes in marine ecosystem status. Shifts in the availability of lower-trophic-level resources or community structure are likely to lead to concomitant alterations in spatial distribution and abundance of predators. Given that key habitats they occupy during their journeys may be affected differentially by both climate change and fishing exploitation, a knowledge of top predator movements, activity and habitat selection in relation to variations in physical and biotic environments and human activity will help resolve how natural and anthropogenic changes affect marine populations.

Currently there is a lack of understanding about where marine top predators go, what they do when they get there, and, crucially, why they select particular habitats over others at certain times. This knowledge gap is particularly wide for important species in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, such as sharks, seabirds and baleen whales for example, despite the availability of good-quality environmental data in these areas. Understanding the ‘why’ question is possible if the behavioural processes, or decision criteria, underpinning observed movements across dynamic ocean landscapes can be identified.

EUTOPIA PUBLICATIONS

Sims, D.W., Queiroz, N., Doyle, T.K., Houghton, J.D.R., & Hays, G.C. (2009) Satellite tracking of the world’s largest bony fish, the ocean sunfish (Mola mola L.) in the north-east Atlantic. Journal of Experimental Biology and Ecology, 370, 127-133.

Pade, N.G., Queiroz, N., Humphries, N.E., Witt, M.J., Jones, C.S., Noble, L.R., & Sims, D.W. (2009) First results from satellite-linked archival tagging of porbeagle shark, Lamna nasus: Area fidelity, wider-scale movements and plasticity in diel depth changes. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 370,
64-74.

Sims, D.W., Southall, E.J., Humphries, N.E., Hays, G.C., Bradshaw, C.J.A., Pitchford, J.W., James, A., Ahmed, M.Z., Brierley, A.S., Hindell, M.A., Morritt, D., Musyl, M.K., Righton, D., Shepard, E.L.C., Wearmouth, V.J., Wilson, R.P., Witt, M.J., & Metcalfe, J.D. (2008) Scaling laws of marine predator search behaviour. Nature, 451, 1098-1102.

Sims, D.W., Righton, D., & Pitchford, J.W. (2007) Minimizing errors in identifying Levy flight behaviour of organisms. Journal of Animal Ecology, 76, 222-229.

Hays, G.C., Bradshaw, C.J.A., James, M.C., Lovell, P., & Sims, D.W. (2007) Why do Argos satellite tags deployed on marine animals stop transmitting? Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 349, 52-60.

Bradshaw, C.J.A., Sims, D.W., & Hays, G.C. (2007) Measurement error causes scale-dependent threshold erosion of biological signals in animal movement data. Ecological Applications, 17, 628-638.

Sims, D.W., Witt, M.J., Richardson, A.J., Southall, E.J., & Metcalfe, J.D. (2006) Encounter success of free-ranging marine predator movements across a dynamic prey landscape. Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological
Science, 273, 1195-1201.

Southall, E.J., Sims, D.W., Witt, M.J., & Metcalfe, J.D. (2006) Seasonal space-use estimates of basking sharks in relation to protection and political-economic zones in the north-east Atlantic. Biological Conservation, 132, 33-39.

Shepard, E.L.C., Ahmed, M.Z., Southall, E.J., Witt, M.J., Metcalfe, J.D., & Sims, D.W. (2006) Diel and tidal rhythms in diving behaviour of pelagic sharks identified by signal processing of archival tagging data. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 328, 205-213.

Hays, G.C., Hobson, V.J., Metcalfe, J.D., Righton, D., & Sims, D.W. (2006) Flexible foraging movements of leatherback turtles across the north Atlantic Ocean. Ecology, 87, 2647-2656.

Leatherback turtle image is copyrighted © to Graeme Hays.