A bioenergetics model for estimating prey consumption by an Adélie penguin population in East Antarctica

Quantifying prey consumption by top predators is a crucial component of ecosystem-based management in the Southern Ocean. In this study, we developed a bioenergetics model to estimate prey consumption by a top predator, the Adélie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae. Our model predicts prey consumption throughout the breeding season and incorporates uncertainty in model parameters using Monte Carlo simulation. The model was parameterized with data obtained at Béchervaise Island, the site of a long-term monitoring program in East Antarctica. We parameterized the model (1) using 13 yr of penguin population data, (2) for a year in which penguins successfully reared their chicks (2001-2002) and (3) for a year with low breeding success (1998-1999). Daily per capita energy consumption during the breeding season averaged 4269 kJ d-1 (95% CI: 4187-4352 kJ d–1) and 4684 kJ d-1 (95% CI: 4596-4771 kJ d–1) for males and females, respectively. Over the entire breeding season a male breeder consumes 470 MJ (95% CI: 461-479 MJ) compared to 515 MJ (95% CI: 506-525 MJ) for a female. On average, the Béchervaise Island population of 1836 breeding pairs consumes 16447 MJ d-1 which amounts to 1809224 MJ during the breeding season. On the basis of variable breeding success and the proportion of krill and fish in their diet, we estimate that this population consumes 78 to 406 t of krill and 4 to 46 t of fish each breeding season. Our results demonstrate clear periods of peak consumption associated with the penguins’ breeding cycle

The influence of historical climate changes on Southern Ocean marine predator populations:A comparative analysis

The Southern Ocean ecosystem is undergoing rapid physical and biological changes that are likely to have profound implications for higher-order predators. Here, we compare the long-term, historical responses of Southern Ocean predators to climate change. We examine palaeoecological evidence for changes in the abundance and distribution of seabirds and marine mammals, and place these into context with palaeoclimate records in order to identify key environmental drivers associated with population changes. Our synthesis revealed two key factors underlying Southern Ocean predator population changes; (i) the availability of ice-free ground for breeding and (ii) access to productive foraging grounds. The processes of glaciation and sea ice fluctuation were key; the distributions and abundances of elephant seals, snow petrels, gentoo, chinstrap and Adélie penguins all responded strongly to the emergence of new breeding habitat coincident with deglaciation and reductions in sea ice. Access to productive foraging grounds was another limiting factor, with snow petrels, king and emperor penguins all affected by reduced prey availability in the past. Several species were isolated in glacial refugia and there is evidence that refuge populations were supported by polynyas. While the underlying drivers of population change were similar across most Southern Ocean predators, the individual responses of species to environmental change varied because of species specific factors such as dispersal ability and environmental sensitivity. Such interspecific differences are likely to affect the future climate change responses of Southern Ocean marine predators and should be considered in conservation plans. Comparative palaeoecological studies are a valuable source of long-term data on species' responses to environmental change that can provide important insights into future climate change responses. This synthesis highlights the importance of protecting productive foraging grounds proximate to breeding locations, as well as the potential role of polynyas as future Southern Ocean refugia.</p

Spatial link between Adélie penguin foraging effort and krill swarm abundance and distribution

Understanding how predator foraging behaviour is influenced by the distribution and abundance of prey is a fundamental challenge in marine foraging ecology. This is particularly relevant in Southern Ocean ecosystems where the relationships between select predator species and Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) can inform ecosystem conservation and precautionary fisheries management. In this study, we examine the spatial associations between krill swarm characteristics and Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) foraging effort at Béchervaise Island, a long-term monitoring site in East Antarctica. Spatially integrating two years of regional-scale krill acoustic data with contemporaneous horizontal and vertical movement information from chick-rearing adult Adélie penguins, we assessed how penguin foraging effort changed in relation to krill swarm abundance and distribution across the survey area. Our findings show that penguin diving effort was focused in areas with a high number of krill swarms, yet they did not focus their effort in areas with high krill biomass. These results suggest the spatial organisation of Adélie penguin foraging effort can provide an indication of krill presence (and/or availability) but may not reflect krill abundance. We discuss our results in the context of penguin foraging strategies, capturing single krill within the water column rather than the engulfment feeding strategy of larger marine mammals such as whales. Our work substantially improves understanding of penguin-krill dynamics in East Antarctica and provides a greater level of nuance regarding the utility of Adélie penguins as indicator species under CCAMLR’s Ecosystem Monitoring Programme (CEMP). Understanding these predator-prey linkages will become increasingly important for managing any expanding krill fisheries in the region or changes in the prey field under future climate change scenarios. Thus, our results can be interpreted alongside other ecological indicators to support management of the East Antarctic sector of the Southern Ocean ecosystem

Happy feet in a hostile world? The future of penguins depends on proactive management of current and expected threats

Penguins face a wide range of threats. Most observed population changes have been negative and have happened over the last 60 years. Today, populations of 11 penguin species are decreasing. Here we present a review that synthesizes details of threats faced by the world's 18 species of penguins. We discuss alterations to their environment at both breeding sites on land and at sea where they forage. The major drivers of change appear to be climate, and food web alterations by marine fisheries. In addition, we also consider other critical and/or emerging threats, namely human disturbance near nesting sites, pollution due to oil, plastics and chemicals such as mercury and persistent organic compounds. Finally, we assess the importance of emerging pathogens and diseases on the health of penguins. We suggest that in the context of climate change, habitat degradation, introduced exotic species and resource competition with fisheries, successful conservation outcomes will require new and unprecedented levels of science and advocacy. Successful conservation stories of penguin species across their geographical range have occurred where there has been concerted effort across local, national and international boundaries to implement effective conservation planning.This work was supported by the WWF-UK and PEW Foundation. SJ is supported by NSF OPP PICA #1643901

Developing priority variables ("ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables" — eEOVs) for observing dynamics and change in Southern Ocean ecosystems

Reliable statements about variability and change in marine ecosystems and their underlying causes are needed to report on their status and to guide management. Here we use the Framework on Ocean Observing (FOO) to begin developing ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (eEOVs) for the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS). An eEOV is a defined biological or ecological quantity, which is derived from field observations, and which contributes significantly to assessments of Southern Ocean ecosystems. Here, assessments are concerned with estimating status and trends in ecosystem properties, attribution of trends to causes, and predicting future trajectories. eEOVs should be feasible to collect at appropriate spatial and temporal scales and are useful to the extent that they contribute to direct estimation of trends and/or attribution, and/or development of ecological (statistical or simulation) models to support assessments. In this paper we outline the rationale, including establishing a set of criteria, for selecting eEOVs for the SOOS and develop a list of candidate eEOVs for further evaluation. Other than habitat variables, nine types of eEOVs for Southern Ocean taxa are identified within three classes: state (magnitude, genetic/species, size spectrum), predator–prey (diet, foraging range), and autecology (phenology, reproductive rate, individual growth rate, detritus). Most candidates for the suite of Southern Ocean taxa relate to state or diet. Candidate autecological eEOVs have not been developed other than for marine mammals and birds. We consider some of the spatial and temporal issues that will influence the adoption and use of eEOVs in an observing system in the Southern Ocean, noting that existing operations and platforms potentially provide coverage of the four main sectors of the region — the East and West Pacific, Atlantic and Indian. Lastly, we discuss the importance of simulation modelling in helping with the design of the observing system in the long term. Regional boundary: south of 30°S

Estimating nest-level phenology and reproductive success of colonial seabirds using time-lapse cameras

1.Collecting spatially extensive data on phenology and reproductive success is important for seabird conservation and management, but can be logistically challenging in remote regions. Autonomous time‐lapse camera systems offer an opportunity to provide such coverage. 2.We describe a method to estimate nest‐level breeding phenology and reproductive success of colonial pygoscelid penguins using photographs from time‐lapse cameras. The method derives from stereotypical patterns of nest attendance, where predominantly two adults are present before and during laying, but switch to one adult during incubation. The switch approximates the date of clutch completion and is estimated by fitting a smoothing spline to daily nest attendance data, identifying candidate dates that switch from two adults to one and selecting the date when the first derivative of the spline is minimized. Clutch initiation and hatch dates are then estimated from the mean, species‐specific interval between laying (pygoscelid penguins typically lay two eggs) and the duration of the incubation period. We estimated these intervals for each species from historical field data. The phenology is adjusted when photographs indicate egg or chick presence prior to their estimated lay or hatch dates. The number of chicks alive in each study nest on its crèche date determines reproductive success estimates. The method was validated with concurrent direct observations for each species and then applied to a camera network in the Antarctic Peninsula region to demonstrate its utility. 3.Mean egg laying and incubation intervals from direct observations were similar within species across sites. In the validation study, the mean clutch initiation, hatch and crèche dates were generally equivalent between photographs and direct observations. Estimates of reproductive success were identical. Applying the method to a time‐lapse network suggested relatively high reproductive success for all species across the region and corroborated general understanding of latitudinal trends and species‐level plasticity in phenology. 4.The method accurately estimated phenology and reproductive success relative to direct observations and appears well‐suited to operationalize regional time‐lapse camera networks. The estimation method should be applicable for other seabirds with stereotypical nest attendance patterns from which breeding phenology could be estimated

Ageing Simulation in Health and Social Care Education: A mixed methods systematic review

Abstract Aim: To identify, evaluate and summarise evidence from qualitative, quantitative and mixed method studies conducted utilising age-suits or other age simulation equipment, with health and social care students. Design: Convergent segregated mixed method review design as outlined by the Johanna Briggs Institute Data Sources: CINAHL (+ with Full Text), MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, SocINDEX, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Emerald Insight, Proquest nursing, Science Direct, Wiley Online and BioMed Central (January 2000 – January 2020) Review methods: Convergent segregated synthesis was used to synthesise evidence from the studies, and the MERSQI checklist used to appraise quality. Results: A total of 23 studies were reviewed: one randomised control, two post-test only randomised control, three quasi-experimental, 15 one-group pre / post studies and two qualitative studies. Of the seventeen studies carrying out inferential statistics on attitude scores post intervention, 11 reported an improvement, three indicated no significant change and three reported worsening scores. Key themes included use of appropriate scales, type of equipment utilised, location and length of interactions, debriefing, and contextualisation of interventions in broader teaching. Conclusion: The impact of ageing simulation interventions on health and social care student’s attitudes to older people was predominantly positive. However, further high-quality research is warranted to understand the optimal use of such interventions within the context of healthcare for a growing ageing population. Impact: It is important health and social care staff have appropriate knowledge and training to enable them to provide high quality care to older people, and challenge potential ageism in the system. This review adds to the body of work around the use of simulation and experiential learning to educate health and social care students regarding ageing and ageism. It also offers recommendations for using ageing simulations effectively to inform attitudes of prospective professionals who will influence future health and social care. Keywords: Simulation, Ageing, Age-suit, Nursing, Health and social care, Education, Attitudes, Empathy, Experiential learning, Systematic revie

Marine important bird and biodiversity areas for penguins in Antarctica: Targets for conservation action

Global targets for area-based conservation and management must move beyond threshold-based targets alone and must account for the quality of such areas. In the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, a region where key biodiversity faces unprecedented risks from climate change and where there is a growing demand to extract resources, a number of marine areas have been afforded enhanced conservation or management measures through two adopted marine protected areas (MPAs). However, evidence suggests that additional high quality areas could benefit from a proposed network of MPAs. Penguins offer a particular opportunity to identify high quality areas because these birds, as highly visible central-place foragers, are considered indicator species whose populations reflect the state of the surrounding marine environment. We compiled a comprehensive dataset of the location of penguin colonies and their associated abundance estimates in Antarctica. We then estimated the at-sea distribution of birds based on information derived from tracking data and through the application of a modified foraging radius approach with a density decay function to identify some of the most important marine areas for chick-rearing adult penguins throughout waters surrounding Antarctica following the Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) framework. Additionally, we assessed how marine IBAs overlapped with the currently adopted and proposed network of key management areas (primarily MPAs), and how the krill fishery likely overlapped with marine IBAs over the past five decades. We identified 63 marine IBAs throughout Antarctic waters and found that were the proposed MPAs to be adopted, the permanent conservation of high quality areas for penguin species would increase by between 49 and 100% depending on the species. Furthermore, our data show that, despite a generally contracting range of operation by the krill fishery in Antarctica over the past five decades, a consistently disproportionate amount of krill is being harvested within marine IBAs compared to the total area in which the fishery operates. Our results support the designation of the proposed MPA network and offer additional guidance as to where decision-makers should act before further perturbation occurs in the Antarctic marine ecosystem

The retrospective analysis of Antarctic tracking data project

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for multiple species of Antarctic meso- and top-predators to identify Areas of Ecological Significance. These datasets and accompanying syntheses provide a greater understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes in the Southern Ocean, support modelling of predator distributions under future climate scenarios and create inputs that can be incorporated into decision making processes by management authorities. In this data paper, we present the compiled tracking data from research groups that have worked in the Antarctic since the 1990s. The data are publicly available through biodiversity.aq and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System. The archive includes tracking data from over 70 contributors across 12 national Antarctic programs, and includes data from 17 predator species, 4060 individual animals, and over 2.9 million observed locations