Dynamic fine-scale sea-icescape shapes adult emperor penguin foraging habitat in East Antarctica
Data DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15784/601209
Cite as
Labrousse, S., Barbraud, C., Bost, C., Fraser, A., Jenouvrier, S., Ji, R., et al. (2019) "Dynamic fine-scale sea-icescape shapes adult emperor penguin foraging habitat in East Antarctica" U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) Data Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.15784/601209.
AMD - DIF Record(s)
Abstract
The emperor penguin, an iconic species threatened by projected sea-ice loss in Antarctica, has long been considered to forage at the fast ice edge, presumably relying on large/yearly-persistent polynyas as their main foraging habitat during the breeding season. Using newly developed fine-scale sea-icescape data and historical penguin tracking data, this study for the first time suggests the importance of less-recognized small openings, including cracks, flaw leads and ephemeral short-term polynyas, as foraging habitats for emperor penguins. The tracking data retrieved from 47 emperor penguins in two different colonies in East Antarctica suggest that those penguins spent 23% of their time in ephemeral polynyas and did not use the large/yearly-persistent, well-studied polynyas, even they occur much more regularly with predictable locations. These findings challenge our previous understanding of emperor penguin breeding habitats, highlighting the need for incorporating fine-scale seascape features when assessing the population persistence in a rapidly changing polar environment.
Creator(s):
Labrousse, Sara;
Fraser, Alexander;
Tamura, Takeshi;
Pinaud, David;
Wienecke, Barbara;
Kirkwood, Roger;
Ropert-Coudert, Yan;
Resinger, Ryan;
Jonsen, Ian;
Porter-Smith, Rick;
Barbraud, Christophe;
Bost, Charles-André;
Ji, Rubao;
Jenouvrier, Stephanie;
Sumner, Michael
Date Created:
2019-09-10
Repository:
USAP-DC (current)
Spatial Extent(s)
West: 55, East: 155, South: -70, North: -62
Temporal Extent(s)
Start: 1993-05-01 - End: 1997-12-31
Award(s)
Version:
1
Related Project(s)
Keywords
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This dataset has been downloaded 13 times since March 2017 (based on unique date-IP combinations)