[All-postdocs] Bioseminar - Kelly Benoit-Bird

[Ana M Velez]

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Biology Department Seminar
Thursday, July 18, 2024 - 12:00 Noon

Kelly Benoit-Bird
Sr. Scientist and Research Chair, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Resolving the Food Paradox in the Sea
Average concentrations of biota in the ocean are low, presenting a critical problem for ocean consumers. With high-resolution sampling, however, we find the ocean is peppered with narrow hotspots of organism activity. To determine if these resource aggregations could provide a significant solution to the ocean's food paradox, a conceptual graphical model was developed that facilitates comparisons of the role of patchiness in predator-prey interactions across taxa, size-scales, and ecosystems. The model predicts that predators are more reliant on aggregated resources for foraging success when the average concentrations of resources is low, the size discrepancy between predator and prey is great, the predator has a high metabolic rate, and/or the predator's foraging time is limited. Size structure differences between marine and terrestrial food webs and a vast disparity in the overall mean density of their resources lead to the conclusion that high-density aggregations of prey are much more important to the survival of oceanic predators than their terrestrial counterparts, shaping the foraging decisions that are available to an individual and setting the stage on which evolutionary pressures can act. Patches of plenty may be rare, but they play an outsized role in behavioral, ecological, and evolutionary processes, particularly in the sea.

HYBRID! In Person: Redfield Auditorium Zoom: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/97000865816<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fq%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwhoi-edu.zoom.us%2Fj%2F97000865816%26sa%3DD%26source%3Dcalendar%26ust%3D1721567133450820%26usg%3DAOvVaw30ooVhm7p8bP3Ja7zzxqNR&data=05%7C02%7Call-postdocs%40whoi.edu%7Cf86eacd8cda4475804ef08dca5a5f79f%7Cd44c5cc6d18c46cc8abd4fdf5b6e5944%7C0%7C0%7C638567379465827071%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=nJl%2BinwKncYefR%2BONzCoeV6rmJBldoRbUm0%2Fc3U9JTQ%3D&reserved=0> Meeting ID: 970 0086 5816 By phone: Find your local number: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/u/adIvMow3LQ<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fq%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwhoi-edu.zoom.us%2Fu%2FadIvMow3LQ%26sa%3DD%26source%3Dcalendar%26ust%3D1721567133450820%26usg%3DAOvVaw0RHTLmZ8ryegvx1Eby73XL&data=05%7C02%7Call-postdocs%40whoi.edu%7Cf86eacd8cda4475804ef08dca5a5f79f%7Cd44c5cc6d18c46cc8abd4fdf5b6e5944%7C0%7C0%7C638567379465827071%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=q6St2gQ0I%2Fr3OMeBQn%2BAN1NlM33FSH5HBmVtTbsESiM%3D&reserved=0>

For questions, contact:

Ana María Vélez
Administrative Associate
Ph: 508-289-2334
[signature_1005462319]

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.whoi.edu/pipermail/all-postdocs/attachments/20240716/1ae3a30f/attachment.htm 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 7718 bytes
Desc: image001.png
Url : http://mailman.whoi.edu/pipermail/all-postdocs/attachments/20240716/1ae3a30f/image001.png