A complete breeding failure in an Adélie penguin colony correlates with unusual and extreme environmental events

Among the outcomes of the drastic changes affecting the Earth's ecosystems, nothing is more telling than a complete failure in the reproductive success of a sentinel species: a ‘zero’ year. Here, we found that unusual environmental conditions in the Terre Adélie sector of Antarctica disrupted t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecography (Copenhagen) Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 111 - 113
Main Authors: Ropert-Coudert, Yan, Kato, Akiko, Meyer, Xavier, Pellé, Marie, MacIntosh, Andrew J. J., Angelier, Frédéric, Chastel, Olivier, Widmann, Michel, Arthur, Ben, Raymond, Ben, Raclot, Thierry
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2015
Nordic Society Oikos
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Wiley
Subjects:
Brevia
Environmental Sciences
sentinel species
extreme event
climate change
ISSN:0906-7590, 1600-0587
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Among the outcomes of the drastic changes affecting the Earth's ecosystems, nothing is more telling than a complete failure in the reproductive success of a sentinel species: a ‘zero’ year. Here, we found that unusual environmental conditions in the Terre Adélie sector of Antarctica disrupted the breeding activity of Adélie penguins Pygoscelis adeliae on land – but also their foraging activity at sea – to such a degree that no chicks survived in the 2013/2014 breeding season. Uncommonly heavy precipitation for this normally dry desert killed chicks en masse, while weak katabatic winds maintained a persistent sea ice around the colony, thereby impacting chick provisioning by adults. Extreme events such as this have direct repercussions for the species in question, and may also affect the wider sea-ice dependent food web. Understanding the nature, frequency, and consequences of such events are central to the management and conservation of this remote yet crucial ecosystem.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-P2ZT4F74-K
ArticleID:ECOG1182
the French Polar Inst. (IPEV, prog. 1091, YR-C, and partly prog. 109, H. Weimerskirch)
the WWF and the zone atelier Antarctique at CNRS
istex:335EB4F3F92FE8E62E7D72DC9C309A946BF87362
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0906-7590
1600-0587
DOI:10.1111/ecog.01182