Dataset Information

Multi-modal survey of Adelie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot.

ABSTRACT: Despite concerted international effort to track and interpret shifts in the abundance and distribution of Adélie penguins, large populations continue to be identified. Here we report on a major hotspot of Adélie penguin abundance identified in the Danger Islands off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). We present the first complete census of Pygoscelis spp. penguins in the Danger Islands, estimated from a multi-modal survey consisting of direct ground counts and computer-automated counts of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery. Our survey reveals that the Danger Islands host 751,527 pairs of Adélie penguins, more than the rest of AP region combined, and include the third and fourth largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world. Our results validate the use of Landsat medium-resolution satellite imagery for the detection of new or unknown penguin colonies and highlight the utility of combining satellite imagery with ground and UAV surveys. The Danger Islands appear to have avoided recent declines documented on the Western AP and, because they are large and likely to remain an important hotspot for avian abundance under projected climate change, deserve special consideration in the negotiation and design of Marine Protected Areas in the region.

SUBMITTER: Borowicz A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5834637 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot.

Borowicz Alex A McDowall Philip P Youngflesh Casey C Sayre-McCord Thomas T Clucas Gemma G Herman Rachael R Forrest Steven S Rider Melissa M Schwaller Mathew M Hart Tom T Jenouvrier Stéphanie S Polito Michael J MJ Singh Hanumant H Lynch Heather J HJ

Scientific reports 20180302 1

Despite concerted international effort to track and interpret shifts in the abundance and distribution of Adélie penguins, large populations continue to be identified. Here we report on a major hotspot of Adélie penguin abundance identified in the Danger Islands off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). We present the first complete census of Pygoscelis spp. penguins in the Danger Islands, estimated from a multi-modal survey consisting of direct ground counts and computer-automated c ...[more]

PMID: 29500389

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Project description:During breeding, king penguins do not build nests, however they show strong territorial behaviour and keep a pecking distance to neighbouring penguins. Penguin positions in breeding colonies are highly stable over weeks and appear regularly spaced, but thus far no quantitative analysis of the structural order inside a colony has been performed. In this study, we use the radial distribution function to analyse the spatial coordinates of penguin positions. Coordinates are obtained from aerial images of two colonies that were observed for several years. Our data demonstrate that the structural order in king penguin colonies resembles a 2-dimensional liquid of particles with a Lennard-Jones-type interaction potential. We verify this using a molecular dynamics simulation with thermally driven particles, whereby temperature corresponds to penguin movements, the energy well depth e of the attractive potential corresponds to the strength of the colony-forming behaviour, and the repulsive zone corresponds to the pecking radius. We can recapitulate the liquid disorder of the colony, as measured by the radial distribution function, when the particles have a temperature of several (1.4-10) ε/kB and a normally distributed repulsive radius. To account for the observation that penguin positions are stable over the entire breeding period, we hypothesize that the liquid disorder is quenched during the colony formation process. Quenching requires the temperature to fall considerably below 1 ε/kB, which corresponds to a glass transition, or the repulsion radius to exceed the distance between neighbouring penguins, which corresponds to a jamming transition. Video recordings of a breeding colony together with simulations suggest that quenching is achieved by a behavioural motility arrest akin to a glass transition. We suggest that a liquid disordered colony structure provides an ideal compromise between high density and high flexibility to respond to external disturbances that require a repositioning of penguins.

Dataset Information

Multi-modal survey of Adelie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot.

Publications

Multi-modal survey of Adélie penguin mega-colonies reveals the Danger Islands as a seabird hotspot.

Similar Datasets

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