| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: Dates provided in temporal coverage are approximate only. Metadata record for data from ASAC Project 106 See the link below for public details on this project. From the abstracts of some of the referenced papers: This paper reports the results of the first aerial photographic survey of Adelie penguin colonies in the Prydz Bay region. The area surveyed extended from the northern Vestfold Hills to the Publications Ice Shelf. More than 325,000 pairs of Adelie penguins were estimated to be breeding in this region in 1981/82. The great majority of breeding Adelie penguins occurred in the northern half of the region surveyed, in the Vestfold hills and Rauer Islands, where most colonies were located. This is probably due to the typical pattern of summer sea-ice dispersal, which usually results in sea-ice leaving the northern areas of the coast first. Prydz Bay supports nine seabird species that breed on the Princess Elizabeth Land coast: two penguins, six Procellariiformes and one skua. Information on their diet is reviewed. Apart from the scavenging South Polar Skua Catharacta maccormicki and Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus, three diet types were distinguished. First, the Emperor Penguin Aptenodytes forsteri ate almost exclusively fish; secondly the Adelie Penguin Pygoscelis adeliae, Cape Petrel Daption capense, and Wilson's Storm Petrel Oceanites oceanicus consumed at least 60% euphausiid, the remainder largely fish; and thirdly, a diet of greater than 60% fish, the rest euphausiids, was taken by the Southern Fulmar Fulmarus glacialoides, Antarctic Petrel Thalassoica antarctica and Snow Petrel Pagodroma nivea. Seasonal fluctuation in composition of Adelie Penguin, Cape Petrel and Southern Fulmar diet suggested either fluctuating foraging ranges or movement of Euphausia superba inshore during summer months. Annual fluctuation in diet composition was correlated with seabird reproductive success. When E. crystallorophias dominated the euphausiid component of Adelie ...
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