Long-term ecological variability and its mechanisms in Antarctic penguins

我们使用最近开发的动物携带的数据记录器来研究南极企鹅的觅食行为，以探讨种群变异性的种间和区域差异背后的生态机制。我们发现同域企鹅的觅食行为及其与环境的关系(特别是与海冰分布的关系)以及同一物种的区域种群之间存在着显着的差异。这种觅食行为的种间/区域差异将导致不同物种/种群的南极企鹅的繁殖和种群变异性受到不同环境的影响。

We examined the foraging behavior of Antarctic penguins using recently developed animal-borne data loggers, to investigate the ecological mechanisms behind the inter-specific and regional differences in population variability. We found marked differences in the foraging behaviors and their environmental relationships(especially with sea-ice distributions) among sympatric penguin species as well as among regional populations of the same species. Such inter-specific/regional differences in the foraging behaviors would lead to variable environmental effects on reproduction and population variability in different species/populations of Antarctic penguins.