Breeding sites and population of seabirds on Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica

Do population parameters influence the role of seabird colonies as secondary pollutants source? A case study for Antarctic ecosystems

“…Because of that, two non exclusive hypotheses arise: it might be there is an important temporal shift in HCB revolatilisation from growing colonies, which could bias the data in the way we found, partially supported by the fact that colony samples presented overall soil concentrations one order of magnitude higher than mosses, and these latter, one order of magnitude higher than lichens (Cipro et al 2019). Also, we hypothesise that an eventual decline in large colonies with a considerable pollutants burden to be supplied in and around them and also a growing population in relatively new colonies could definitely bias the data in the way we found out, which is highly consistent with the reports from literature (Petry et al 2016).…”

“…A similar situation as for the other two pygoscelids can be reported for the Gentoo (P. papua): despite an overall increase of population in Antarctica, a substantial decline was observed and predicted in Admiralty Bay (Woehler et al 2001). Moreover, the temperature anomaly presented significant negative correlation for the number of breeding pairs of P. antarcticus and P. papua and positively for Skuas in a previous study (Petry et al 2016). Phenological changes (Barbraud and Weimerskirch 2006) and sea-ice extension (Croxall et al 2002) also do play a role in colony population size.…”

“…For seabird colonies, population estimations were performed according to a previous study of the authors (Petry et al 2016). Briefly, population censuses were conducted during each species' incubation period (CCAMLR 2014).…”

“…According to Petry et al (2016), the Antarctic Peninsula has undergone rapid climate changes when compared to other parts of Antarctica (Schofield et al 2010). Bottom-up effects influence a large array of species of the Antarctic food webs at many levels (Schofield et al 2010).…”

Distribution and Floating Population of Birds on Penguin Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica

“…Approximately 300,000 visitors were recorded in Antarctica (IAATO, 2013) in 2011/12, and according to Sander et al (2004), Petry et al (2015) and Bender et al, 2016, there is evidence of tourism on the South Shetlands, and Penguin Island is one of the most visited sites. Furthermore, long-term studies on the monitoring of populations suggest that occurring environmental changes are able to a ect the abundance, distribution, and phenology of species (Walther et al, 2002, Chambers et al, 2013, Petry et al, 2015. e three most abundant species that dwell and reproduce on Penguin Island are Pygoscelis adeliae, Pygoscelis antarcticus, and Macronectes giganteus.…”