Who wins when the competition heats up? Effects of climate change on interactions among three Antarctic penguin species

Clewlow, Harriet Lucy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5925-9100. 2019 Who wins when the competition heats up? Effects of climate change on interactions among three Antarctic penguin species. University of Exeter, PhD Thesis, 204pp.

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.

Text ClewlowH 2019 PhD.pdf Restricted to NORA staff only Download (4MB) | Request a copy

Abstract/Summary

This thesis sought to elucidate the mechanisms driving the large-scale population changes observed in Pygoscelis penguins in the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP)/Scotia Sea region since the 1970s, with particular focus on the interactions between the species. During this period the climate in this region has changed dramatically, with rapid warming and sea ice declines occurring until the late 20th century to be followed by a pause in the warming. These changes have altered biotic and abiotic conditions in the penguins’ ecosystem and researchers widely agree that this is driving their population changes. In order to elucidate the exact mechanisms of population change, we attempted to fill crucial knowledge gaps, including foraging ecology, migration and breeding success, throughout their annual cycle and all with particular focus on the interactions between the three Pygoscelis species. Direct tracking and isotope analysis provided novel insights into foraging behaviour and the role of niche partitioning between the species throughout the annual cycle, and its importance for reducing interspecific competition. During the breeding season, allochrony between Adélie and chinstrap penguins was found to reduce competitive overlap in foraging areas by 54%, compared to synchronous breeding, and to be resilient to climate change. The migration routes and over-winter sites of chinstrap penguins from the South Orkney Islands were identified for the first time and were found to be segregated from birds from the neighbouring South Shetland Islands archipelago. The environmental conditions at the two over-winter sites differed but the population trends at the two archipelagos were similar, suggesting that winter conditions are not likely to be a major driver. Developing on our findings of contrasting environmental conditions across the chinstrap over-wintering sites, we investigated the effect of multiple environmental variables on population trends in the final two thesis chapters. Sea ice has been shown to be a major driver of Adélie penguin breeding success, and thereby population trends, and birds in our study region experience particularly dramatic seasonal changes in sea ice concentration (SIC), as it is located near the northern extent of winter ice. The three Pygoscelis species are widely cited as having different ice tolerances, termed the ‘sea ice hypothesis’, with Adélies being described as ‘ice-loving’, chinstraps as ‘ice tolerant’ and gentoos as ‘ice averse’. These differing ice tolerances are 3 thought to be a major factor in the species’ contrasting population changes in this region and these hypothesised preferences could theoretically induce a sea ice optima for breeding and forging success. However, no evidence was found for a sea ice optima at the study colony, despite previous studies finding a 20% optima for Adélies in East Antarctica, and SIC was found to have no significant effect on breeding productivity or diet composition but some effect was found for fledging mass and foraging trip duration. The combined influence of environmental conditions and interspecific interactions on the three species’ population trends was investigated for the first time in this system. Data from large and local scale climate and a long time period (more than 25 years) were investigated at the two study archipelagos using a multi-species Gompertz population model. The model failed to identify any of the modelled variables as major drivers of the population variation, suggesting that other factors, such as predation and prey availability were potentially important drivers. This thesis also identified a number of priorities for future research and identified the need for a greater emphasis on modelling the effects of Antarctic krill biomass, rather than climate variables, upon penguin demographic variables.

Item Type:	Publication - Thesis (PhD)
Date made live:	20 Nov 2019 10:37 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525983

Actions (login required)

View Item

Document Downloads

More statistics for this item...