Adelie penguin area-wide breeding population census, 1991 - present. ...

• Main Authors: LTER, Palmer Station Antarctica, Fraser, William
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Environmental Data Initiative 2020
• Subjects: Adelie penguin; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/89dd52217ca37e3a72a67f7a9bc3c82e; https://portal.edirepository.org/nis/mapbrowse?packageid=knb-lter-pal.87.7

The fundamental long-term objective of the seabird component of the Palmer LTER (PAL) has been to identify and understand the mechanistic processes that regulate the mean fitness (population growth rate) of regional penguin populations. Two hypotheses have guided this research, with one suggesting that population mean fitness is best explained by changes in regional krill biomass, and the other proposing that long-term changes in sea ice affects mean fitness by tipping the balance in favor of one species over another in accordance with species-specific evolved life history affinities to sea ice. Although these hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, current evidence in the PAL region tends to favor the latter over the former. Since the inception of PAL, Adélie penguin populations have effectively collapsed, while those of gentoo and chinstrap penguins have increased dramatically, trends that are spatially and temporally coherent with decreasing regional sea ice duration. Adélie penguins are an ice-obligate ...