Abstract
Penguin foraging and breeding success depend on broad-scale environmental and local-scale hydrographic features of their habitat. We investigated the effect of local tidal currents on a population of Adélie penguins on Humble Is., Antarctica. We used satellite-tagged penguins, an autonomous underwater vehicle, and historical tidal records to model of penguin foraging locations over ten seasons. The bearing of tidal currents did not oscillate daily, but rather between diurnal and semidiurnal tidal regimes. Adélie penguins foraging locations changed in response to tidal regime switching, and not to daily tidal patterns. The hydrography and foraging patterns of Adélie penguins during these switching tidal regimes suggest that they are responding to changing prey availability, as they are concentrated and dispersed in nearby Palmer Deep by variable tidal forcing on weekly timescales, providing a link between local currents and the ecology of this predator.
Highlights
The region surrounding Anvers Island, West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a ‘‘hot-spot’’ for Adelie penguin activity
The Adelie penguins from Humble Is. frequently forage over the northeast edge of Palmer Deep (Figure 1) and follow noticeably different trajectories during the diurnal and semidiurnal tidal regime are evident (Figure S1)
Our results show that weekly switching in tidal regimes, but not daily changes in tidal amplitude, is a significant predictor of Adelie penguin foraging locations near a historic penguin ‘‘hotspot’’ that is characterized by deep submarine canyons and fjords
Summary
The region surrounding Anvers Island, West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) is a ‘‘hot-spot’’ for Adelie penguin activity. The presence of a pronounced submarine canyon (Palmer Deep) near this area provides a conduit for warm Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW), locally increasing primary production, which supports a productive regional food web [3,4,5]. This region has warmed significantly [6,7] and has lost a significant amount of sea-ice [8,9]. Understanding the interaction between the foraging behavior of the remaining Adelie penguins and physical dynamics in this historical ‘‘hot-spot’’ may provide insights into the future of this historic colony that has survived past warming and cooling events [12]
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