Extreme snowstorms lead to large-scale seabird breeding failures in Antarctica

• Published in: Current Biology
• Main Authors: Descamps, Sébastien, Hudson, Stephen, Sulich, Joanna, Wakefield, Ewan, Grémillet, David, Carravieri, Alice, Orskaug, Sebastian, Steen, Harald
• Other Authors: Norwegian Polar Institute, Durham University, Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Institut Agro Montpellier, Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (Institut Agro)-Université de Montpellier (UM), 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), LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: [SDV.EE.BIO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment/Bioclimatology; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Petrel; Antarctica; DML; Dronning Maud Land; Sea ice; Snow Petrel; Stercorarius maccormicki; Thalassoica antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04032396; https://hal.science/hal-04032396/document; https://hal.science/hal-04032396/file/DCB33_2023.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.12.055

International audience Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that negatively impact wildlife, from individuals to whole ecosystems1. In polar environments, such events include heat waves2, anomalous sea ice concentrations3 and storms4. Polar seabirds are adapted to withstand harsh conditions, and although extreme weather events affect their breeding success and other demographic rates, they are thought to affect only a part of the population. Complete breeding failure of an entire population due to extreme environmental conditions is rarely observed5. Here we report how exceptional storm activity in Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica, in the austral summer of 2021/2022 caused almost complete and large-scale breeding failures of the area's three most common seabird species - Antarctic petrel (Thalassoica antarctica), Snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea) and South polar skua (Stercorarius maccormicki).