Penguins as oceanographers unravel hidden mechanisms of marine productivity

International audience A recent concept for investigating marine ecosystems is to employ diving predators as cost-effective, autonomous samplers of environmental parameters (such as sea-temperature). Using king penguins during their foraging trips at sea, we obtained an unprecedented high resolution...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology Letters
Main Authors: Charrassin, Jean-Benoit, Park, young-Hyang, Maho, yvon Le, Bost, Charles-André
Other Authors: Centre d'écologie et physiologie énergétiques (CEPE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2002
Subjects:
[PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]
Southern Ocean
Kerguelen
Kerguelen Islands
King Penguins
Online Access:https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03692381
https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2002.00341.x
Description
Summary:International audience A recent concept for investigating marine ecosystems is to employ diving predators as cost-effective, autonomous samplers of environmental parameters (such as sea-temperature). Using king penguins during their foraging trips at sea, we obtained an unprecedented high resolution temperature map at depth off the Kerguelen Islands, Southern Ocean, a poorly sampled but productive area. We found clear evidence of a previously unknown subsurface tongue of cold water, flowing along the eastern shelf break. These new results provide a better understanding of regional water circulation and help explain the high primary productivity above the Kerguelen Plateau.

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