Large-scale population assessment informs conservation management for seabirds in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean: A case study of Adélie penguins

• Published in: Global Ecology and Conservation
• Main Authors: Southwell, Colin, Emmerson, Louise, Takahashi, Akinori, Barbraud, Christophe, Delord, Karine, Weimerskirch, Henri
• Other Authors: Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy, National Insitute of Polar Research, National Institute of Polar Research Tokyo (NiPR), Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2017
• Subjects: Abundance; Seabird; Area protection; Fisheries management; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Antarctic; East Antarctica; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01502264; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2016.12.004

International audience Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are increasingly affected by fisheries, climate changeand human presence. Antarctic seabirds are vulnerable to all these threats because theydepend on terrestrial and marine environments to breed and forage. We assess the currentdistribution and total abundance of Adélie penguins in East Antarctica and find there are3.5 (95% CI 2.9–4.2) million individuals of breeding age along the East Antarctic coastlineand 5.9 (4.2–7.7) million individuals foraging in the adjacent ocean after the breedingseason. One third of the breeding population numbering over 1 million individuals breedwithin 10 km of research stations, highlighting the potential for human activities to impactAdélie penguin populations despite their current high abundance. The 16 Antarctic SpeciallyProtected Areas currently designated in East Antarctica offer protection to breedingpopulations close to stations in four of six regional populations. The East Antarctic breedingpopulation consumes an average of 193 500 tonnes of krill and 18 800 tonnes of fishduring a breeding season, with consumption peaking at the end of the breeding season.These findings can inform future conservation management decisions in the terrestrialenvironment under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to develop a systematicnetwork of protected areas, and in the marine environment under the Convention forthe Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to allow the consumption needs ofAdélie penguins to be taken into account when setting fishery catch limits. Extending thiswork to other penguin, flying seabird, seal and whale species is a priority for conservationmanagement in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.