Western Antarctic Peninsula

• Main Authors: Eric S. Erdmann A, Christine A. Ribic B, Donna L. Patterson-fraser C, William R. Fraser C
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Austral; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Pygoscelis adeliae; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.473.5939; http://pal.lternet.edu/docs/bibliography/Public/398lterc.pdf

Environmental factors Feeding behavior a b s t r a c t In accord with the hypotheses driving the Southern Ocean Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (SO GLOBEC) program, we tested the hypothesis that the winter foraging ecology of a major top predator in waters off the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), the Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), is constrained by oceanographic features related to the physiography of the region. This hypothesis grew from the supposition that breeding colonies in the WAP during summer are located adjacent to areas of complex bathymetry where circulation and upwelling processes appear to ensure predictable food resources. Therefore, we tested the additional hypothesis that these areas continue to contribute to the foraging strategy of this species throughout the non-breeding winter season. We used satellite telemetry data collected as part of the SO GLOBEC program during the austral winters of 2001 and 2002 to characterize individual penguin foraging locations in relation to bathymetry, sea ice variabilitywithin the pack ice, and wind velocity and divergence (as a proxy for potential areas with cracks and leads). We also explored differences betweenmales and females in core foraging area overlap. Ocean depthwas themost