Monitoring of a southern giant petrel Macronectes giganteus population on the Frazier Islands, Wilkes Land, Antarctica

Since 1956, Southern Giant Petrels on the Frazier Islands, East Antarctica, have been counted with different census techniques, sometimes varying within seasons and among islands, which hindered analysis of the data. Protective measures for the islands from 1986 onwards have increased the need for r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polar Biology
Main Authors: Creuwels, J.C S, Stark, J.S., Woehler, E.J., van Franeker, J.A, Ribic, C.A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2005
Subjects:
LONG-TERM POPULATION
TRENDS
SEABIRDS
ADELIE
East Antarctica
Frazier
Frazier Islands
Giganteus
Nelly Island
Wilkes Land
Antarc*
Antarctica
Giant Petrel
Giant Petrels
Macronectes giganteus
Polar Biology
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/11370/a1f77aae-0ff3-4ae7-9e5d-92471754f20b
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/monitoring-of-a-southern-giant-petrel-macronectes-giganteus-population-on-the-frazier-islands-wilkes-land-antarctica(a1f77aae-0ff3-4ae7-9e5d-92471754f20b).html
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0663-8
Description
Summary:Since 1956, Southern Giant Petrels on the Frazier Islands, East Antarctica, have been counted with different census techniques, sometimes varying within seasons and among islands, which hindered analysis of the data. Protective measures for the islands from 1986 onwards have increased the need for reliable long-term census data, but reduced the ways to collect these data. Published and unpublished data were re-examined, and population trends were reconstructed based on two relatively standardised techniques: the number of active chicks (AC) and the number of apparently occupied nests (AON) around hatching. AC-values from Nelly Island from 1959 to 1998 indicate substantial periodic fluctuations, but no consistent long-term change. Since the late 1970s, AC-values on the other two islands and AON-values suggest that the breeding population may have grown by 35%. This recent growth, however, is within the extent of periodic fluctuations observed in Southern Giant Petrel population that is stable over the long term.

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