Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Marine Sciences A308
Phone: 831.459.5358
Fax: 831.459.5353
Contact Us
Map & Directions

DANIEL P. COSTA Professor of EEBiology B.A., University of California, Los Angeles Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz Postdoctoral, Scripps Institution of Oceanography COSTA LAB

Center for Ocean Health 100 Shaffer Road University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95060 phone 831.459.2786 fax 831.459.3383 costa@biology.ucsc.edu office hours

Physiological Ecology of Marine Mammals and Birds

Our laboratory is interested in the adaptations of marine mammals and seabirds to life in the marine environment. Current research focuses on the foraging ecology and energetics of pinnipeds and seabirds. These groups exhibit different foraging and reproductive patterns even though both groups feed at sea and remain tied to shore for reproduction. Although such limitations pose similar problems, each group has adapted in different ways. Our group is interested in the ecological and physiological constraints that may be responsible for these different adaptations. In order to better understand these differences we are quantitatively examining the patterning of energy acquisition while at sea and its subsequent allocation during reproduction. Factors such as locomotory mode, distance to the foraging grounds, and the quality and distribution of the food resource all affect parental energy acquisition and the subsequent provisioning of the young. One aspect of this work is an examination of how foraging costs and energy delivery to the young are affected by physiological constraints such as body size or mass-specific metabolism. We are aso examining how animals optimize their foraging behavior in relation to oceanography.

Selected Publications

Costa, D.P. and Sinervo, B. 2004. Field physiology: Physiological insights from animals in nature. Annual Review Physiology 66:23.1-23.30.

Costa, D.P., Crocker, D.E., Gedamke, J., Webb, P.M., Houser, D.S., Blackwell, S.B., Waples, D., Hayes, S.A. and LeBoeuf, B.J. 2003. The effect of a low-frequency sound source (acoustic thermometry of the ocean climate) on the diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris. Journal Acoustical Society of America 113(2):1155-1165.

Block, B.A., Costa, D.P., Hoehlert, G.W. and Kochevar, R. 2002. Revealing pelagic habitat use: the tagging of Pacific pelagics program. Oceanologica Acta. 25:255-266.

Costa, D.P. and Gales, N.J. 2003. The energetics of a benthic diver: seasonal foraging ecology of the Australian sea lion, Neophoca cinerea. Ecological Monographs 73(1):27-43.

Hofmann, E.E., Klinck, J.M., Costa, D.P., Daly, K.L., Torres, J.J. and Fraser, W.R. 2002. U.S. Southern Ocean Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics Program. Oceanography 15(2) 64-74.

Boehlert, G.W., Costa, D.P., Crocker, D.E., Green, P., O'Brien, T., Levitus, S., and LeBoeuf, B.J. 2001. Autonomous pinniped environmental samplers (APES): Using instrumented animals as oceanographic data collectors. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. 18:1882-1893.

Costa, D.P., Gales, N.J. and Goebel, M.E. 2001. Aerobic dive limit: how often does it occur in nature? Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 129A:771-783.

Costa, D.P. and Williams, T.M. 2000. Marine Mammal Energetics. In: The Biology of Marine Mammals, J. Reynolds and J. Twiss, eds. The Smithsonian Institution Press: Washington, DC; pp. 176-217.

Costa, D.P. and Gales, N.J. 2000. Foraging energetics and diving behavior of lactating New Zealand sea lions, Phocarctos hookeri. Journal of Experimental Biology 203:3655-3665.

LeBoeuf, B.J., Crocker, D.E., Costa, D.P., Blackwell, S.B., Webb, P.M. and Houser, D.S. 2000. Foraging ecology of northern elephant seals. Ecological Monographs 70(3):353-382.