Populations of breeding birds in Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands

• Published in: Antarctic Science
• Main Authors: Gil-Delgado, José A., González-Solís, J., Barbosa, Andrés
• Other Authors: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2013
• Subjects: Population size; Densities; Line transects; Nests; Penguin colonies; Antarctic; Byers; Byers peninsula; Giganteus; Livingston Island; South Shetland Islands; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Science; Antarctica; Chinstrap penguin; Gentoo penguin; Giant Petrel; Giant Petrels; Macronectes giganteus; Pygoscelis antarctica; Pygoscelis papua; Sterna vittata
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/156949; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102012000752; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329

Data about breeding populations of birds in the Antarctica are rare and fragmented. Thus, information about the status of the breeding populations of Antarctic birds is crucial given the current scenario of climate change, which is particularly acute in Antarctica. This paper presents new information about the populations of the Antarctic tern Sterna vittata, the kelp gull Larus dominicanus, the southern giant petrel Macronectes giganteus, the Antarctic skua Catharacta antarctica lonnbergi, the chinstrap penguin Pygoscelis antarctica and the gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua on Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands). We used line transects counts to estimate both densities and numbers of nests of the different species. We estimate that there are 398.96 birds km-2 of southern giant petrels (2793 individuals), 62.4 birds km-2 of Antarctic tern (3746 individuals) and 269.1 birds km-2 of kelp gull (1884 individuals). Furthermore, we found 15 nests of Antarctic skua in 25 km2, from which we can estimate that 60-91 birds must breed on Byers Peninsula. We also censused two colonies of gentoo penguins (3000 and 1200 pairs) and 50 pairs of chinstrap. Compared to previous estimates, gentoo penguins seem to have increased whereas chinstrap penguin have decreased. Finally, the populations of Antarctic tern, southern giant petrel and kelp gull have stabilized or slightly increased. Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2013. José A. Gil-Delgado has been supported by several grants from the Spanish Ministries of Education and Science and of Science and Innovation as follows: grants CGL2005-06549-C02-02, CGL2007-29841-E and CTM2008-05205-E were given to Antonio Camacho (University of Valencia) and were co-financed by European FEDER funds. Grants CGL2005-06549-C02-01 and POL2006-06635 were given to Antonio Quesada (Autonomous University of Madrid). A. Barbosa was supported by the POL2006-05175 and CGL2007-60369 project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and by the European Regional. ...