Picturehttp://www.thorsten-wiegand.de/
During this week, Maite Louzao will be visiting the Department of Ecological Modelling in the UFZ (Leipzig, Germany) in order to collaborate with Thorsten Wiegand.  The objective of this research stay is to advance in the coupling of the energy expenditure model of albatrosses with an individual-based model, one of the core objectives of the CONPELHAB project.



 
Picturehttp://www.movelab.net/
During this week, Maite Louzao will be collaborating with the MoveLab (http://www.movelab.net/) from the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Spain. Maite will be working with Frederic Bartumeus and his research team regarding the movement ecology of albatrosses. Movement Ecology Lab is a highly collaborative and multidisciplinary research lab that addresses fundamental and applied questions in relation to animal movement and dispersal processes.

 
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Between 15-19 July 2013, Maite Louzao attended the XIth SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) symposium "Life in Antarctica: Boundaries and Gradients in a Changing Environment", http://www.icm.csic.e/XIthSCARBiologySymposium/.
An important aspect of this symposium is the outreach and education section, which will emphasize the importance of communication between polar researchers and educators in order to improve understanding and connections between scientists and society.

Maite contributed with the an interesting talk regarding the energetic patterns of free-ranging animals in the open ocean. Free-ranging animals search for preys in their surrounding and have to adapt their movement and foraging strategies to current environmental conditions to accomplish their energetic requirements and to maximize their fitness. Foraging in the Southern Ocean, the windiest part of the world, is challenging even for the greatest flying bird at sea: the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans. For the first time, we are able to work out a full and comprehensive quantification of the energetic patterns of the open ocean foraging trips of the wandering albatross. Global Positioning System tracking data was collected in the Southern Indian Ocean during the brooding period. Model development combined (1) the identification of detailed behavioural modes, (2) the estimation of heart rate values, (3) the transformation of heart rates to energy units, by developing an instantaneous energy expenditure model and, (4) the validation of predictions against independent empirical distributions. Our work unveils the importance of considering fine scale behavioural modes to make realistic estimates of trip energy expenditure for flying birds at sea.  This is essential since the energy budget is the central link of foraging behaviour with life history traits and a key factor in understanding the factors determining their at-sea movements.