Dataset Information

From warm to cold: migration of Adelie penguins within Cape Bird, Ross Island.

ABSTRACT: Due to their sensitivity to environmental change, penguins in Antarctica are widely used as bio-indicators in paleoclimatic research. On the basis of bio-element assemblages identified in four ornithogenic sediment profiles, we reconstructed the historical penguin population change at Cape Bird, Ross Island, for the past 1600 years. Clear succession of penguin population peaks were observed in different profiles at about 1400 AD, which suggested a high probability of migration within this region. The succession was most obviously marked by a sand layer lasting from 1400 to 1900 AD in one of the analyzed profiles. Multiple physical/chemical parameters indicated this sand layer was not formed in a lacustrine environment, but was marine-derived. Both isostatic subsidence and frequent storms under the colder climatic condition of the Little Ice Age were presumed to have caused the abandonment of the colonies, and we believe the penguins migrated from the coastal area of mid Cape Bird northward and to higher ground as recorded in the other sediment profiles. This migration was an ecological response to global climate change and possible subsequent geological effects in Antarctica.

SUBMITTER: Nie Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4650636 | biostudies-other | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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From warm to cold: migration of Adélie penguins within Cape Bird, Ross Island.

Nie Yaguang Y Sun Liguang L Liu Xiaodong X Emslie Steven D SD

Scientific reports 20150626

Due to their sensitivity to environmental change, penguins in Antarctica are widely used as bio-indicators in paleoclimatic research. On the basis of bio-element assemblages identified in four ornithogenic sediment profiles, we reconstructed the historical penguin population change at Cape Bird, Ross Island, for the past 1600 years. Clear succession of penguin population peaks were observed in different profiles at about 1400 AD, which suggested a high probability of migration within this region ...[more]

PMID: 26113152

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Project description:Climate seasonality is a predominant constraint on the lifecycles of species in alpine and polar biomes. Assessing the response of these species to climate change thus requires taking into account seasonal constraints on populations. However, interactions between seasonality, weather fluctuations, and population parameters remain poorly explored as they require long-term studies with high sampling frequency. This study investigated the influence of environmental covariates on the demography of a corvid species, the alpine chough Pyrrhocorax graculus, in the highly seasonal environment of the Mont Blanc region. In two steps, we estimated: (1) the seasonal survival of categories of individuals based on their age, sex, etc., (2) the effect of environmental covariates on seasonal survival. We hypothesized that the cold season-and more specifically, the end of the cold season (spring)-would be a critical period for individuals, and we expected that weather and individual covariates would influence survival variation during critical periods. We found that while spring was a critical season for adult female survival, it was not for males. This is likely because females are dominated by males at feeding sites during snowy seasons (winter and spring), and additionally must invest energy in egg production. When conditions were not favorable, which seemed to happen when the cold season was warmer than usual, females probably reached their physiological limits. Surprisingly, adult survival was higher at the beginning of the cold season than in summer, which may result from adaptation to harsh weather in alpine and polar vertebrates. This hypothesis could be confirmed by testing it with larger sets of populations. This first seasonal analysis of individual survival over the full life cycle in a sedentary alpine bird shows that including seasonality in demographic investigations is crucial to better understand the potential impacts of climate change on cold ecosystems.

Dataset Information

From warm to cold: migration of Adelie penguins within Cape Bird, Ross Island.

Publications

From warm to cold: migration of Adélie penguins within Cape Bird, Ross Island.

Similar Datasets

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