Penguins as Monitors of the Krill-centric Southern Ocean Marine Ecosystem

这项长期研究的重点是对阿德利企鹅、Genoo企鹅和chinstrap企鹅的繁殖生物学、觅食生态学和人口学进行比较研究。在南极南设得兰群岛的金钟海湾(分别为P.巴布亚和P.南极洲)。自1977年以来每年获得的关于这些物种的长期数据，包括生存和招募、种群规模和繁殖成功、食物和觅食生态，提供了明确的证据，将近海生物和物理过程与其对南大洋依赖的捕食者的影响联系起来。这些种群的丰度出现波动，这与环境条件的长期变化有关，特别是海冰覆盖及其对磷虾可获得性的影响。本研究将继续进行长期研究，以检验企鹅繁殖生物学、觅食生态学和人口学与繁殖季节环境变异性之间的假说。此外，将进一步扩大工作范围，解决冬季期间这三个物种之间的分布和营养相互作用问题。这些方法涉及三个方面：相关性分析、冬季生态学和种群动态模拟。相关分析将用于检测有个别参数数据的20-30年期间捕食者数据参数的年际趋势。冬季研究将包括使用卫星标签跟踪觅食活动，蛋黄脂中的脂肪酸特征将被用于检查冬季饮食。这些研究的结果将被纳入人口动态模型。这项研究是少数几个正在进行的研究项目之一，这些项目拥有陆上捕食者研究和海洋调查所需的历史数据，以检查环境变异性对南大洋捕食者-猎物相互作用的影响。就更广泛的影响而言，这项研究是《养护南极海洋生物资源公约》生态系统监测方案的主要贡献者，该方案是1980年代中期设计的一项国际努力，目的是为管理目的提供数据，以检测、监测和预测新的磷虾渔业对南大洋的猎物(磷虾)和从属捕食者(企鹅、海豹、鲸鱼)的潜在影响。确定了一组重要的监测物种，这些物种既是磷虾的专性食用者，也是容易研究的物种，其中包括主要的食磷虾属--企鹅。该项目由国家科学基金和国家海洋水产局联合支持。

The focus of this long-term research has been a comparative study of the breeding biology, foraging ecology, and demography of Adelie, gentoo and chinstrap penguin. (Pygoscelis adeliae, P. papua and P. antarctica, respectively) at Admiralty Bay, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Long-term data acquired annually since 1977 on these species including survival and recruitment, population size and breeding success, diets and foraging ecology, provide clear evidence linking offshore biological and physical processes to their effects on dependent predators in the Southern Ocean. These populations have exhibited fluctuations in abundance that have been related to long-term changes in environmental conditions, in particular sea ice coverage and its effects on krill availability. The present research will continue the long-term research to test hypotheses relating penguin breeding biology, foraging ecology and demography to environmental variability during the breeding season. In addition, the work will be expanded further address questions on the distribution and trophic interactions among the three species during the winter period. The approaches involve three foci: correlative analysis, winter ecology and population-dynamics modeling. Correlative analysis will be used to detect inter-annual trends in the predator data parameters over the 20-30 year periods for which there are data individual parameters. Winter studies will involve tracking foraging movements using satellite-tags and fatty acid signatures in egg yolk lipids will be used to examine the winter diets. The results from these studies will be incorporated into population-dynamic models. This study is one of the few ongoing research projects that have the historical data needed, from both land-based predator studies and marine surveys, to examine the effect of environmental variability on predator-prey interactions in the Southern Ocean. In terms of broader impacts, this research is a major contributor to the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources Ecosystem Monitoring Program, an international effort designed in the mid-1980s to provide data for management purposes that would detect, monitor and predict the potential impacts of a new krill fishery on the prey (krill) and dependent predators (penguins, seals, whales) in the Southern Ocean. A group of key monitoring species were identified that were both obligate krill consumers and easily studied, among them were the main krill consuming genus, the Pygoscelis penguins. This project is jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Marine Fisheries Service.