TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic fine-scale sea icescape shapes adult emperor penguin foraging habitat in east Antarctica
AU - Labrousse, Sara
AU - Fraser, Alexander D.
AU - Sumner, Michael
AU - Tamura, Takeshi
AU - Pinaud, David
AU - Wienecke, Barbara
AU - Kirkwood, Roger
AU - Ropert-Coudert, Yan
AU - Reisinger, Ryan
AU - Jonsen, Ian
AU - Porter-Smith, Rick
AU - Barbraud, Christophe
AU - Bost, Charles André
AU - Ji, Rubao
AU - Jenouvrier, Stéphanie
N1 - Copyright the Publisher 2019. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2019/10/28
Y1 - 2019/10/28
N2 - 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 if 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.
AB - 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 if 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.
KW - emperor penguin
KW - fast ice
KW - foraging ecology
KW - iceberg
KW - polynya
KW - sea ice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074486196&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2019GL084347
DO - 10.1029/2019GL084347
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85074486196
VL - 46
SP - 11206
EP - 11218
JO - Geophysical Research Letters
JF - Geophysical Research Letters
SN - 0094-8276
IS - 20
ER -