Climate change winners: receding ice fields facilitate colony expansion and altered dynamics in an Adélie penguin metapopulation

PLoS ONE
By: , and 

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Abstract

There will be winners and losers as climate change alters the habitats of polar organisms. For an Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony on Beaufort Island (Beaufort), part of a cluster of colonies in the southern Ross Sea, we report a recent population increase in response to increased nesting habitat as glaciers have receded. Emigration rates of birds banded as chicks on Beaufort to colonies on nearby Ross Island decreased after 2005 as available habitat on Beaufort increased, leading to altered dynamics of the metapopulation. Using aerial photography beginning in 1958 and modern satellite imagery, we measured change in area of available nesting habitat and population size of the Beaufort colony. Population size varied with available habitat, and both increased rapidly since the 1990s. In accord with glacial retreat, summer temperatures at nearby McMurdo Station increased by ~0.50°C per decade since the mid-1980s. Although the Ross Sea is likely to be the last ocean with an intact ecosystem, the recent retreat of ice fields at Beaufort that resulted in increased breeding habitat exemplifies a process that has been underway in the Ross Sea during the entire Holocene. Furthermore, our results are in line with predictions that major ice shelves and glaciers will retreat rapidly elsewhere in the Antarctic, potentially leading to increased breeding habitat for Adélie penguins. Results further indicated that satellite imagery may be used to estimate large changes in Adélie penguin populations, facilitating our understanding of metapopulation dynamics and environmental factors that influence regional populations.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Climate change winners: receding ice fields facilitate colony expansion and altered dynamics in an Adélie penguin metapopulation
Series title PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0060568
Volume 8
Issue 4
Year Published 2013
Language English
Publisher Public Library of Science
Contributing office(s) Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Description e60568
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title PLoS ONE
Other Geospatial Ross Sea;Beaufort Island
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