Factors Regulating Population Size and Colony Distribution of Adelie Penguins in the Ross Sea

9814882David Ainley这个更新项目调查了种群的地理结构、新种群的建立以及最近阿德利企鹅（Pygoscelis adeliae）现有种群规模的巨大变化的人口统计学和生活史机制。该项目将检查(1)限制种群生长的资源的相对重要性——筑巢栖息地的可用性与食物的获取；(2)那些可能受到剥削性竞争或干扰性竞争影响的自然历史和人口统计学参数，这些参数反过来又由群体规模调节（如繁殖和觅食努力和成功）；(3)作为初始规模和分布函数影响群体增长的行为机制（例如，philopry -移民-移民平衡）。在这第一个考虑海鸟种群地理结构的实证先验研究中，我们问，为什么相邻的企鹅种群在大小上不同？为什么要建立新的殖民地？总的来说，这些方法将结合几种成熟的技术，例如，用于评估筑巢栖息地的航空摄影，用于检查海冰范围的卫星图像，用于评估群落喂养区域重叠的无线电遥测，用于评估人口参数和分散的标记，以及用于确定觅食能量成本的时间深度记录仪和双重标记水。研究结果将增加对企鹅数量调节和分散模式的理解，以及通过海冰覆盖变化介导的气候变化对企鹅数量的影响。此外，研究结果将提供一个背景，以解释现有项目中关于企鹅种群趋势的相互矛盾的数据，这些项目将阿德利企鹅作为南极渔业资源点源人为影响的指示物种。

9814882David Ainley This renewal project investigates the demographic and life-history mechanisms responsible for geographic structuring of colonies, the founding of new colonies and recent dramatic change in the size of existing colonies of Adelie penguins Pygoscelis adeliae. The project will examine (1) the relative importance of resources that constrain colony growth - availability of nesting habitat versus access to food; (2) those natural history and demographic parameters that might be affected by exploitative or interference competition, in turn mediated by colony size (e.g. breeding and foraging effort and success); and (3) behavioral mechanisms that influence colony growth as a function of initial size and distribution (e.g. philopatry - the immigration-emigration balance). In this first empirical a priori study to consider the geographic structuring of a seabird population, we ask, Why do neighboring penguin colonies differ in size? Why are new colonies founded? Overall, the methods will bring together several well-established techniques, e.g. aerial photography for assessment of nesting habitat, satellite images for examination of sea ice extent, radio telemetry for assessment of overlap in colony feeding areas, tagging to assess demographic parameters and dispersal, and time depth recorders and doubly labelled water for determination of energetic costs of foraging. Results will increase understanding of population regulation and patterns of dispersion, and the effects of climate change, mediated through changes in sea-ice cover, on penguin populations. In addition, results will provide a context in which to interpret conflicting data on penguin population trends from existing programs that use Adelie penguins as an indicator species for point source anthropogenic impacts on Antarctic fishing resources.