Advances in remote sensing of emperor penguins: first multi-year time series documenting trends in the global population

LaRue, M.; Iles, D.; Labrousse, S.; Fretwell, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1988-5844; Ortega, D.; Devane, E.; Horstmann, I.; Viollat, L.; Foster-Dyer, R.; Le Bohec, C.; Zitterbart, D.; Houstin, A.; Richter, S.; Winterl, A.; Wienecke, B.; Salas, L.; Nixon, M.; Barbraud, C.; Kooyman, G.; Ponganis, P.; Ainley, D.; Trathan, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6673-9930; Jenouvrier, S.. 2024 Advances in remote sensing of emperor penguins: first multi-year time series documenting trends in the global population. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291 (2018), 20232067. 11, pp. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2067

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Text (Open Access) © 2024 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. larue-et-al-2024-advances-in-remote-sensing-of-emperor-penguins-first-multi-year-time-series-documenting-trends-in-the.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (811kB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Like many polar animals, emperor penguin populations are challenging to monitor because of the species' life history and remoteness. Consequently, it has been difficult to establish its global status, a subject important to resolve as polar environments change. To advance our understanding of emperor penguins, we combined remote sensing, validation surveys and using Bayesian modelling, we estimated a comprehensive population trajectory over a recent 10-year period, encompassing the entirety of the species’ range. Reported as indices of abundance, our study indicates with 81% probability that there were fewer adult emperor penguins in 2018 than in 2009, with a posterior median decrease of 9.6% (95% credible interval (CI) −26.4% to +9.4%). The global population trend was −1.3% per year over this period (95% CI = −3.3% to +1.0%) and declines probably occurred in four of eight fast ice regions, irrespective of habitat conditions. Thus far, explanations have yet to be identified regarding trends, especially as we observed an apparent population uptick toward the end of time series. Our work potentially establishes a framework for monitoring other Antarctic coastal species detectable by satellite, while promoting a need for research to better understand factors driving biotic changes in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2067
ISSN:	0962-8452
Additional Keywords:	Antarctica, high-resolution satellite imagery, Bayesian modelling, Southern Ocean, Aptenodytes forsteri
Date made live:	15 Mar 2024 11:13 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/537110

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