Human infrastructures correspond to higher Adélie penguin breeding success and growth rate

• Published in: Oecologia
• Main Authors: Méheust, Yann, Delord, Karine, Bonnet-Lebrun, Anne-Sophie, Raclot, Thierry, Vasseur, Julien, Allain, Jimmy, Decourteillle, Virgil, Bost, Charles-André, Barbraud, Christophe
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: Pygoscelis adeliae; Antarctica; Population monitoring; Human disturbance; Population dynamics; Breeding habitat quality; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; [SDV.EE.IEO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Symbiosis; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04509261; https://hal.science/hal-04509261/document; https://hal.science/hal-04509261/file/manuscript_revised_II.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-024-05523-0

International audience Anthropogenic activities generate increasing disturbance in wildlife especially in extreme environments where species have to cope with rapid environmental changes. In Antarctica, while studies on human disturbance have mostly focused on stress response through physiological and behavioral changes, local variability in population dynamics has been addressed more scarcely. In addition, the mechanisms by which breeding communities are affected around research stations remain unclear.Our study aims at pointing out the fine-scale impact of human infrastructures on the spatial variability in Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies dynamics. Taking 24 years of population monitoring, we modeled colony breeding success and growth rate in response to both anthropic and land-based environmental variables. Building density around colonies was the second most important variable explaining spatial variability in breeding success after distance from skua nests, the main predators of penguins on land. Building density was positively associated with penguins breeding success. We discuss how buildings may protect penguins from avian predation and environmental conditions. The drivers of colony growth rate included topographical variables and the distance to human infrastructures. A strong correlation between 1-year lagged growth rate and colony breeding success was coherent with the use of public information by penguins to select their initialbreeding site. Overall, our study brings new insights about the relative contribution and ecological implications of human presence on the local population dynamics of a sentinel species in Antarctica.