Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves.
We describe a new breeding behaviour discovered in emperor penguins; utilizing satellite and aerial-survey observations four emperor penguin breeding colonies have been recorded as existing on ice-shelves. Emperors have previously been considered as a sea-ice obligate species, with 44 of the 46 colo...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0648g7qg 2023-05-15T13:42:04+02:00 Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. Fretwell, Peter T Trathan, Phil N Wienecke, Barbara Kooyman, Gerald L Margalida, Antoni e85285 2014-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0648g7qg unknown eScholarship, University of California qt0648g7qg https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0648g7qg public PloS one, vol 9, iss 1 Animals Spheniscidae Animal Migration Ecosystem Seasons Ice Cover Population Density Reproduction Antarctic Regions Female Male Climate Action General Science & Technology article 2014 ftcdlib 2022-08-01T17:29:15Z We describe a new breeding behaviour discovered in emperor penguins; utilizing satellite and aerial-survey observations four emperor penguin breeding colonies have been recorded as existing on ice-shelves. Emperors have previously been considered as a sea-ice obligate species, with 44 of the 46 colonies located on sea-ice (the other two small colonies are on land). Of the colonies found on ice-shelves, two are newly discovered, and these have been recorded on shelves every season that they have been observed, the other two have been recorded both on ice-shelves and sea-ice in different breeding seasons. We conduct two analyses; the first using synthetic aperture radar data to assess why the largest of the four colonies, for which we have most data, locates sometimes on the shelf and sometimes on the sea-ice, and find that in years where the sea-ice forms late, the colony relocates onto the ice-shelf. The second analysis uses a number of environmental variables to test the habitat marginality of all emperor penguin breeding sites. We find that three of the four colonies reported in this study are in the most northerly, warmest conditions where sea-ice is often sub-optimal. The emperor penguin's reliance on sea-ice as a breeding platform coupled with recent concerns over changed sea-ice patterns consequent on regional warming, has led to their designation as "near threatened" in the IUCN red list. Current climate models predict that future loss of sea-ice around the Antarctic coastline will negatively impact emperor numbers; recent estimates suggest a halving of the population by 2052. The discovery of this new breeding behaviour at marginal sites could mitigate some of the consequences of sea-ice loss; potential benefits and whether these are permanent or temporary need to be considered and understood before further attempts are made to predict the population trajectory of this iconic species. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Emperor penguins Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice University of California: eScholarship Antarctic The Antarctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Animals Spheniscidae Animal Migration Ecosystem Seasons Ice Cover Population Density Reproduction Antarctic Regions Female Male Climate Action General Science & Technology |
spellingShingle |
Animals Spheniscidae Animal Migration Ecosystem Seasons Ice Cover Population Density Reproduction Antarctic Regions Female Male Climate Action General Science & Technology Fretwell, Peter T Trathan, Phil N Wienecke, Barbara Kooyman, Gerald L Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
topic_facet |
Animals Spheniscidae Animal Migration Ecosystem Seasons Ice Cover Population Density Reproduction Antarctic Regions Female Male Climate Action General Science & Technology |
description |
We describe a new breeding behaviour discovered in emperor penguins; utilizing satellite and aerial-survey observations four emperor penguin breeding colonies have been recorded as existing on ice-shelves. Emperors have previously been considered as a sea-ice obligate species, with 44 of the 46 colonies located on sea-ice (the other two small colonies are on land). Of the colonies found on ice-shelves, two are newly discovered, and these have been recorded on shelves every season that they have been observed, the other two have been recorded both on ice-shelves and sea-ice in different breeding seasons. We conduct two analyses; the first using synthetic aperture radar data to assess why the largest of the four colonies, for which we have most data, locates sometimes on the shelf and sometimes on the sea-ice, and find that in years where the sea-ice forms late, the colony relocates onto the ice-shelf. The second analysis uses a number of environmental variables to test the habitat marginality of all emperor penguin breeding sites. We find that three of the four colonies reported in this study are in the most northerly, warmest conditions where sea-ice is often sub-optimal. The emperor penguin's reliance on sea-ice as a breeding platform coupled with recent concerns over changed sea-ice patterns consequent on regional warming, has led to their designation as "near threatened" in the IUCN red list. Current climate models predict that future loss of sea-ice around the Antarctic coastline will negatively impact emperor numbers; recent estimates suggest a halving of the population by 2052. The discovery of this new breeding behaviour at marginal sites could mitigate some of the consequences of sea-ice loss; potential benefits and whether these are permanent or temporary need to be considered and understood before further attempts are made to predict the population trajectory of this iconic species. |
author2 |
Margalida, Antoni |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fretwell, Peter T Trathan, Phil N Wienecke, Barbara Kooyman, Gerald L |
author_facet |
Fretwell, Peter T Trathan, Phil N Wienecke, Barbara Kooyman, Gerald L |
author_sort |
Fretwell, Peter T |
title |
Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
title_short |
Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
title_full |
Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
title_fullStr |
Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
title_sort |
emperor penguins breeding on iceshelves. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0648g7qg |
op_coverage |
e85285 |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Emperor penguins Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Emperor penguins Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice |
op_source |
PloS one, vol 9, iss 1 |
op_relation |
qt0648g7qg https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0648g7qg |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766162316302221312 |