阿德雷企鹅喜浮冰环境，对南极气候特别是海冰变化具有明确的指示意义。东南极西福尔丘陵和维多利亚地是阿德雷企鹅最重要的两大聚居地，已有不少这两个地区全新世企鹅生态变化的研究，但由于研究载体及样品量的不足，目前还缺少晚全新世以来的高分辨记录，并限制了与海洋环境的深入联系。本项目拟在前期野外考察采样和预实验的基础上，对东南极西福尔丘及维多利亚地企鹅活动区具有高分辨率且连续的沉积羽毛和粪土序列开展生物地球化学分析并与海洋沉积记录进行综合对比研究。通过生物残体高精度AMS14C定年建立可靠的年代序列；分析沉积剖面羽毛的稳定C、N同位素比值以及Cd、Hg等微量元素含量，结合海洋沉积记录，恢复过去3000年来企鹅捕食区域、食物组成及海洋食物链特征微量元素含量变化。从生物响应角度讨论企鹅取食生态及区域食物链变化与海冰环境和气候变化的关联，为深入理解南大洋气候、海冰、食物链和企鹅之间的驱动与响应关系提供依据。

Adélie penguin favors pack-ice habitat and plays as an excellent bio-indicator for Antarctic climate and sea ice conditions. The Vestfold Hills and Victoria Land along East Antarctic coast are two most important colonies of Adélie penguin on the earth. Many paleo-records of Adélie penguins at these two areas, including occupation history, population dynamics and dietary change over the Holocene, have been documented in previous investigations. Due to the type of research materials and lack of high-resolution records during the late Holocene, it is difficult to conduct an in-depth comparison of penguin's paleoecology and the marine environments they forage. On the basis of previous filed investigations, we plan to perform biogeochemical analyses on high-resolution sediment profiles of penguin feathers and ornithogenic sediments from Vestfold Hills and Victoria Land, and conduct an integrated comparison between penguin ecological changes and marine paleo-environments. Reliable chronology will be established by the precise AMS14C dating on penguin remains from sediment profiles. Changes of foraging habitat, dietary composition of penguins as well as the trace elements in food chains during the past 3000 years will be reconstructed by the analyses of stable C and N isotope ratios and trace elements in penguin feathers in the sediment profile. The responses of foraging ecology of penguins and regional marine food chains to sea ice conditions and climate change in the past 3000 years will be discussed. This proposal will enable us to in-depth understanding the interactions among climate change, sea ice, food chains and penguins in Southern Ocean, and the mechanisms of climate and sea-ice drive and the biological responses.