The Distribution and Diets of Penguins in Winter: Implications for Demography.

冬季企鹅的分布和饮食：对人口学的影响。

• 批准号: 9980641
• 负责人: Wayne Trivelpiece
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-09-15 至 2002-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9980641&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Distribution; Diets; Penguins; Winter; Implications

Long-term seabird research conducted at Admiralty Bay, which is located on King George Island in the Antarctic Peninsula region, has documented annual variability in the life history parameters of the breeding biology and ecology of the Adelie, gentoo and chinstrap penguins. Twenty-year records acquired on these species, including survival and recruitment, population size and breeding success, and diets and foraging ecology have enable scientists to test key hypotheses regarding the linkage between these predator parameters and variability in the Antarctic marine ecosystem. At present, there is no data in the winter distributions of known Adelie or chinstrap populations from the Antarctic Peninsula and only limited data on winter diets. This gap in knowledge of what features of the winter environment, both physical and biological may be important to the distribution, survival and future breeding status of penguins is critical. This project will focus on understanding the linkages between the physical environment and the population biology of penguins, in particular, sea ice coverage and its impact on krill availability as a food source for penguins. Krill is a key food web species in the Antarctic oceans and accounts for nearly one hundred percent of the prey eaten by dominant predators such as baleen whales, seals and penguins. Analysis of long-term data sets has suggested that years of heavy winter sea ice favor krill recruitment, as larval krill find refuge and food in the sea ice habitat. It has also been observed that years of heavy sea ice favor Adelie penguin recruitment and not that of chinstrap penguins. Aspects of the work include analysis of diet samples, shipboard krill sampling, survival and recruitment studies of penguins, satellite tracking of penguins during the breeding and non-breeding season, and analysis of satellite sea ice images. Penguins are the key species used to monitor the impact of commercial fisheries activities in the region, so this study will provide useful information to the convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which is the part of the Antarctic Treaty System which focuses on Ecosystem management.

在位于南极半岛乔治国王岛的金钟湾进行的长期海鸟研究，记录了阿德利企鹅、巴布亚企鹅和帽带企鹅的繁殖生物学和生态学的生活史参数的年度变化。这些物种的20年记录，包括生存和补充、种群规模和繁殖成功、饮食和觅食生态，使科学家能够检验关于这些捕食者参数与南极海洋生态系统变化之间联系的关键假设。目前，没有南极半岛已知阿德利或帽带种群冬季分布的数据，只有有限的冬季饮食数据。关于冬季环境的物理和生物特征可能对企鹅的分布、生存和未来的繁殖状况很重要的知识差距是至关重要的。该项目将侧重于了解自然环境与企鹅种群生物学之间的联系，特别是海冰覆盖及其对作为企鹅食物来源的磷虾的影响。磷虾是南极海洋中重要的食物网物种，占了须鲸、海豹和企鹅等主要捕食者近100%的猎物。对长期数据集的分析表明，多年的严冬海冰有利于磷虾的招募，因为磷虾幼虫在海冰栖息地找到了避难所和食物。人们还观察到，常年的海冰覆盖有利于阿德利企鹅的招募，而不利于帽带企鹅的招募。这项工作包括分析饮食样本、船上磷虾取样、企鹅的生存和招募研究、在繁殖期和非繁殖期对企鹅进行卫星跟踪，以及分析卫星海冰图像。企鹅是监测该地区商业渔业活动影响的关键物种，因此本研究将为南极海洋生物资源保护公约提供有用的信息，该公约是南极条约系统的一部分，重点是生态系统管理。