STABLE ISOTOPES AND FEEDING ECOLOGY OF MARINE PREDATORS
Yves Cherel, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (France)

Current research (1993 until now):
Pelagic ecosystem, marine resources, and food and feeding ecology of top marine predators.

Research activities:

1. Structure and functioning of the pelagic ecosystem
2. Plasticity in resource acquisition of seabirds and marine mammals - Community structure
3. Top predators as bioindicators of marine resources

Feeding ecology of top marine predators (seabirds: penguins, albatrosses and petrels; marine mammals: fur seals, elephant seal) is investigated through the use of various methods including:
- the conventional method of food analysis;
- the indirect methods of stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S) and lipids as trophic markers.

Most of the field work takes place in the southern Indian Ocean (Crozet, Kerguelen and Amsterdam Islands, Adélie Land), but also at Bear Island (Arctic), in Tasmania, Southern New Zealand (Campbell Island), the Falkland Islands in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) and in continental Antarctica.