Concept information
Preferred term
CIRCUMPOLAR POPULATION MONITORI
Definition
- Climate change is already dramatically affecting the biosphere, but its effects on biological communities are still poorly understood. Because of the sensitivity of sea ice extent to temperature fluctuation, and the sensitivity of high-latitude species to changes in ice extent, the Southern Ocean represents a natural laboratory in which to investigate the impacts of global and regional climate change and any consequent biotic modifications. In the Southern Ocean, individual species depending on their link to sea ice may be affected independently, or there may be changes due to complex, multispecies interactions, e.g. bottom-up cascades from plankton to krill, fish and top-predators; conversely, top-down cascades could result from alterations of predation pressure as changing sea ice affects the degree of access of top predators to their prey. In this context, it is now well documented that, among air-breathing top-predators, variations in penguin population can be used as an indicator of climatic changes. The census of penguin populations over several decades and all around the continent has indeed revealed general long-term trends, some of which appear to be contradictory depending on spatial scale. For example, the West Antarctic Peninsula show trends that differ from those observed in the Ross Sea and elsewhere. Furthermore, colonies at the regional scale, such as the South Orkney Islands, can also show contrasting population trajectories. It has been found that small colonies respond more dramatically to the altered environment than larger ones, a response affected by the proximity of neighbouring colonies and their respective size. In other words, some of the fundamental mechanisms driving the dynamics of penguin populations still remain largely unidentified. A long-term monitoring of individual birds using methods that minimize disturbance is therefore necessary to determine the life-history parameters that respond to climate change, such as survival, emigration, breeding performance and foraging success as well as metapopulation dynamics (clusters of colonies). It is also critical to ascertain that the differences within and between colonies are not due to an experimental bias. A co-ordinated effort, therefore, is required in the monitoring and analysis at different sites, both in following individuals over the complete breeding season and in tracking them at sea where they feed The main goal of this project is precisely to address these issues. This will be carried out in the context of other IPY projects that have related objectives and in the context of existing long-term monitoring programmes that are already well established. These include the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) IPY EoI 83, Integrated Analyses of Circumpolar Climate Interactions and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean (ICED) IPY 417, and the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). We propose: 1. To define and use a population monitoring protocol for land-based top-predators that allows us to obtain large, quantitative sample sizes of year-round biological information about their breeding performance and at-sea activity and distribution with minimum disturbance for the population studied. This challenging task is feasible because of the major advances in microelectronics that have occurred over recent years. Our project will combine state-of-art electronic identification of individuals with the most-advanced bio-logging approaches. To minimize disturbance, the identification of animals requires that individuals are tagged with miniature passive implanted transponder microchips that are detected by radio receiver antennae (Automatic Identification System, AIS). This will be complemented by the bio-logging approach, which is based on externally-attached, miniature data-recorders that monitor the location, time-budget and/or feeding activity of free ranging animals. 2. To co-ordinate and standardize the monitoring and analysis procedures used by different research groups so as to provide a circumpolar network of information on the status of penguin populations, an activity to further the goals of CCAMLR. This will include promoting the development of automatic systems to monitor penguin populations at sites not yet monitored and to provide assistance to research groups that do not yet have the expertise or resources in this domain. 3. To share information on the population dynamics of penguins in relation to environmental variability (especially sea-ice) with: a) lead IPY projects (e.g. CAML EoI 83 and ICED EoI 417); b) other research groups investigating biological variability at other levels in the food chain (e.g. fish IPY EoI 248); and with d) a wider audience through media links and through internet-related links, including e) graduate and undergraduate students whose majors are related to Antarctic topics (e.g. through courses and lectures given at the International Antarctic Institute: http://www.iai.utas.edu.au/). Summary provided by http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=251 (en)
Broader concept
- A - C (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/867bc74f-1849-4ee8-a1dd-e2441c8f9742
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