Effects of Sea-Ice Persistence on the Diet of Adélie Penguin ( Pygoscelis adeliae ) Chicks and the Trophic Differences between Chicks and Adults in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

In Antarctica, prey availability for the mesopredator Adélie penguin, , depends on sea-ice dynamics. By affecting cycles of sea-ice formation and melt, climate change could thus affect penguin diet and recruitment. In the light of climate change, this raises concerns about the fate of this dominant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biology (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-05, Vol.12 (5), p.708
Main Authors: Maccapan, Deborah, Careddu, Giulio, Calizza, Edoardo, Sporta Caputi, Simona, Rossi, Loreto, Costantini, Maria Letizia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Algae
Analysis
Climate change
Climatic changes
Coasts
Colonies
Consumers
Diet
Ecosystems
Endemic species
Feces
feeding strategies
Food chains
Food chains (Ecology)
Food webs
Foraging behavior
Guano
isotopic niche
Juveniles
Penguins
Plankton
Predators
Prey
Pygoscelis adeliae
Recruitment
Sea ice
sea-ice break-up
stable isotopes
Summer
trophic ecology
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Summary:In Antarctica, prey availability for the mesopredator Adélie penguin, , depends on sea-ice dynamics. By affecting cycles of sea-ice formation and melt, climate change could thus affect penguin diet and recruitment. In the light of climate change, this raises concerns about the fate of this dominant endemic species, which plays a key role in the Antarctic food web. However, few quantitative studies measuring the effects of sea-ice persistence on the diet of penguin chicks have yet been conducted. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by comparing penguin diets across four penguin colonies in the Ross Sea and evaluating latitudinal and interannual variation linked to different sea-ice persistence. Diet was evaluated by analysing the δ C and δ N values of penguin guano, and sea-ice persistence by means of satellite images. Isotopic values indicate that penguins consumed more krill in colonies with longer sea-ice persistence. In these colonies, the δ C values of chicks were lower and closer to the pelagic chain than those of adults, suggesting that the latter apparently catch prey inshore for self-feeding and offshore for their chicks. The results indicate that sea-ice persistence is among the principal factors that influence the spatiotemporal variability of the penguins' diet.
ISSN:2079-7737
2079-7737
DOI:10.3390/biology12050708