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ARC success: the seal's whiskers15 October 2008 The history and impacts of climate change are being revealed by a surprising source - the whiskers of seals in Antarctica. Marine mammal expert Dr Tracey Rogers, of the UNSW Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, likens seal whiskers to "black box" flight recorders because they contain "a continuous data stream containing information about the diet and geographic movements of marine creatures". "We are what we eat," says Dr Rogers. "A seal is a top predator that switches between eating krill, fish, penguins and other seals, and each whisker is like a time capsule that reveals the seal's continuous dietary history for a period of three-and-a-half to four years." She has made regular trips to the frozen continent over the past decade to assess threats to marine mammals arising from rising air and sea temperatures, melting ice and changes to marine ecology and food stocks. Now her work can continue thanks to a $300,000 Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant awarded to her and scientific colleagues at Sydney's Taronga Zoo. The grant is one of more than 30 valued at almost $11 million awarded to more than 60 researchers in the UNSW Faculty of Science and announced today by the ARC for its Linkage and Discovery funding programs. The largest Linkage grant was valued at $900,000 over three years for a project led by Dr Sue Hand and Professor Mike Archer, the Dean of the Faculty. They are also piecing together the effects of climate change on life over the past 25 million years through the geology of northern Australia to better anticipate future climatic threats to natural and cultural communities. Partners in that project are Xstrata Copper North Queensland, the Queensland Museum, Outback at Isa and the Mt Isa City Council. Dr Rogers points out that the skin, tissues and hair of animals can reveal a lot about their diet and lifestyle. The concentration of stable isotopes of nitrogen in a whisker, for example, can reveal a creature's level in the food chain - high nitrogen levels indicate that a creature is higher in the food chain. Carbon levels reveal a creature's geographic movements. By studying the ratio of these elements in each fragment of whisker, Rogers and her colleagues can build a moving picture of a seal's travels and diet over time even into the depths of winter. The researchers have collected leopard seal whiskers from museum collections around the world, some dating back as far as Sir Douglas Mawson's famous 1911 Antarctic expedition. This means that they have nearly a century of data revealing changes in seals' feeding ecology. Dr Rogers' program is part of a larger international program comparing long-term environmental data from sources such as ice cores and atmospheric recordings, which will boost our knowledge of the delicate relationship between climate change and marine ecology in one of the world's richest environments. |
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