Computer vision-aided biophysical and ecological studies of Antarctic species

• Main Author: Richter, Sebastian
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: ddc:577; ddc:629; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Emperor penguins; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10384; https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:29-opus4-103849; https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-fau/files/10384/DissertationSRichter_250dpi.pdf

Global change is predicted to have a strong impact on the Southern Ocean ecosystem. The warming climate, variations in sea ice formation and increased activity of humans affect the food availability and will require indigenous species to adapt. The rate and nature of changes in the ecosystem and the effect of long-term climate variation, however, are not trivially identifiable. Hence, sentinel species, for example the Emperor penguin in Antarctica, are used as a sensitive indicator for such changes. However, to discern variations in behavior and identify adaption to their environment, an understanding of the baseline behavior is required. The difficult access to remote locations and harsh environmental conditions prevalent in the Antarctic, especially during the Antarctic winter hamper large-scale and long-term observations. Knowledge of the Emperor penguins’ behavioral traits is so far limited to few accessible colonies in the close proximity of year-round manned stations and opportunistic recordings. In light of a predicted population decrease of up to 50% by the end of the century, further studies are a pressing matter. A holistic model of Emperor penguin colonies would allow us to predict behavior, identify deviations from this baseline behavior and infer potential causes. In the recent years, satellite based remote sensing has been successfully used to detect breeding locations along the Antarctic coast line. Bio-logging approaches have been applied to provide information on circumpolar migration and life history of individuals. However, methods to study behavior of individuals or colonies on time scales from minutes to months are largely missing. These timescales are critical to observe and understand behavior changes on short time scales over multiple seasons, for example, the rearrangement and relocation of the colony in reaction to changing environmental conditions, or the shift in conditions that trigger the emergence of huddling behavior. In this thesis, an integrated, videography-based study of ...