Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation
There will be winners and losers as climate change alters the habitats of polar organisms. For an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony on Beaufort Island (Beaufort), part of a cluster of colonies in the southern Ross Sea, we report a recent population increase in response to increased nesting...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3616090 2023-05-15T13:36:05+02:00 Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation LaRue, Michelle A. Ainley, David G. Swanson, Matt Dugger, Katie M. Lyver, Phil O′B. Barton, Kerry Ballard, Grant 2013-04-03 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616090 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23573267 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060568 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616090 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23573267 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060568 This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. PDM CC0 Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060568 2013-09-04T22:00:48Z There will be winners and losers as climate change alters the habitats of polar organisms. For an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony on Beaufort Island (Beaufort), part of a cluster of colonies in the southern Ross Sea, we report a recent population increase in response to increased nesting habitat as glaciers have receded. Emigration rates of birds banded as chicks on Beaufort to colonies on nearby Ross Island decreased after 2005 as available habitat on Beaufort increased, leading to altered dynamics of the metapopulation. Using aerial photography beginning in 1958 and modern satellite imagery, we measured change in area of available nesting habitat and population size of the Beaufort colony. Population size varied with available habitat, and both increased rapidly since the 1990s. In accord with glacial retreat, summer temperatures at nearby McMurdo Station increased by ∼0.50°C per decade since the mid-1980s. Although the Ross Sea is likely to be the last ocean with an intact ecosystem, the recent retreat of ice fields at Beaufort that resulted in increased breeding habitat exemplifies a process that has been underway in the Ross Sea during the entire Holocene. Furthermore, our results are in line with predictions that major ice shelves and glaciers will retreat rapidly elsewhere in the Antarctic, potentially leading to increased breeding habitat for Adélie penguins. Results further indicated that satellite imagery may be used to estimate large changes in Adélie penguin populations, facilitating our understanding of metapopulation dynamics and environmental factors that influence regional populations. Text Antarc* Antarctic Beaufort Island Ice Shelves Pygoscelis adeliae Ross Island Ross Sea PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Beaufort Island ENVELOPE(166.833,166.833,-76.933,-76.933) McMurdo Station ENVELOPE(166.667,166.667,-77.850,-77.850) Ross Island Ross Sea The Antarctic PLoS ONE 8 4 e60568 |
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Research Article LaRue, Michelle A. Ainley, David G. Swanson, Matt Dugger, Katie M. Lyver, Phil O′B. Barton, Kerry Ballard, Grant Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation |
topic_facet |
Research Article |
description |
There will be winners and losers as climate change alters the habitats of polar organisms. For an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony on Beaufort Island (Beaufort), part of a cluster of colonies in the southern Ross Sea, we report a recent population increase in response to increased nesting habitat as glaciers have receded. Emigration rates of birds banded as chicks on Beaufort to colonies on nearby Ross Island decreased after 2005 as available habitat on Beaufort increased, leading to altered dynamics of the metapopulation. Using aerial photography beginning in 1958 and modern satellite imagery, we measured change in area of available nesting habitat and population size of the Beaufort colony. Population size varied with available habitat, and both increased rapidly since the 1990s. In accord with glacial retreat, summer temperatures at nearby McMurdo Station increased by ∼0.50°C per decade since the mid-1980s. Although the Ross Sea is likely to be the last ocean with an intact ecosystem, the recent retreat of ice fields at Beaufort that resulted in increased breeding habitat exemplifies a process that has been underway in the Ross Sea during the entire Holocene. Furthermore, our results are in line with predictions that major ice shelves and glaciers will retreat rapidly elsewhere in the Antarctic, potentially leading to increased breeding habitat for Adélie penguins. Results further indicated that satellite imagery may be used to estimate large changes in Adélie penguin populations, facilitating our understanding of metapopulation dynamics and environmental factors that influence regional populations. |
format |
Text |
author |
LaRue, Michelle A. Ainley, David G. Swanson, Matt Dugger, Katie M. Lyver, Phil O′B. Barton, Kerry Ballard, Grant |
author_facet |
LaRue, Michelle A. Ainley, David G. Swanson, Matt Dugger, Katie M. Lyver, Phil O′B. Barton, Kerry Ballard, Grant |
author_sort |
LaRue, Michelle A. |
title |
Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation |
title_short |
Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation |
title_full |
Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation |
title_fullStr |
Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation |
title_sort |
climate change winners: receding ice fields facilitate colony expansion and altered dynamics in an adélie penguin metapopulation |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616090 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23573267 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060568 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(166.833,166.833,-76.933,-76.933) ENVELOPE(166.667,166.667,-77.850,-77.850) |
geographic |
Antarctic Beaufort Island McMurdo Station Ross Island Ross Sea The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Beaufort Island McMurdo Station Ross Island Ross Sea The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Beaufort Island Ice Shelves Pygoscelis adeliae Ross Island Ross Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Beaufort Island Ice Shelves Pygoscelis adeliae Ross Island Ross Sea |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3616090 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23573267 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060568 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. |
op_rightsnorm |
PDM CC0 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0060568 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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4 |
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e60568 |
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1766074133125267456 |