Abstract
Anthropogenic activities generate increasing disturbance in wildlife especially in extreme environments where species have to cope with rapid environmental changes. In Antarctica, while studies on human disturbance have mostly focused on stress response through physiological and behavioral changes, local variability in population dynamics has been addressed more scarcely. In addition, the mechanisms by which breeding communities are affected around research stations remain unclear. Our study aims at pointing out the fine-scale impact of human infrastructures on the spatial variability in Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colonies dynamics. Taking 24 years of population monitoring, we modeled colony breeding success and growth rate in response to both anthropic and land-based environmental variables. Building density around colonies was the second most important variable explaining spatial variability in breeding success after distance from skua nests, the main predators of penguins on land. Building density was positively associated with penguins breeding success. We discuss how buildings may protect penguins from avian predation and environmental conditions. The drivers of colony growth rate included topographical variables and the distance to human infrastructures. A strong correlation between 1-year lagged growth rate and colony breeding success was coherent with the use of public information by penguins to select their initial breeding site. Overall, our study brings new insights about the relative contribution and ecological implications of human presence on the local population dynamics of a sentinel species in Antarctica.
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Data supporting the results are available from the Figshare Digital Repository: http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22341229.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the field workers involved in long-term demographic studies at the Pointe Géologie Archipelago. The authors thank David Pinaud and Jade Vacquié-Garcia for valuable comments on the methodology used in the study. The authors thank the IPEV AMMER program No. 1091 (resp. Akiko Kato and Thierry Raclot) for its collaboration.
Funding
The long-term demographic study at Dumont d’Urville station was supported by the French Polar Institute IPEV (OrnithoEco program No. 109, resp. Christophe Barbraud), and the Zone Atelier Antarctique (CNRS-Écologie & Environnement). The data were gathered as part of the « Suivi démographique des oiseaux marins et pinnipèdes en Terre Adélie» (CNRS-Écologie & Environnement long-term observatory, resp. Christophe Barbraud).
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YM, KD, TR, CAB, and CB contributed to the study conception and design. Data curation was performed by YM and KD with support from JV, JA, and VD. Data analysis was performed by YM with input from KD, ASBL, TR, CAB, and CB. The manuscript was written by YM, and all authors contributed to the revisions and approved the final manuscript.
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The Ethics Committee of IPEV and Comite de l’Environnement Polaire approved the field procedures.
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Communicated by Thomas Koert Lameris.
Sizing the anthropic impact on Antarctic wildlife is a priority of managing committees. We report a long-term effect of infrastructures on a key species. This may help Antarctic conservation planning.
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Méheust, Y., Delord, K., Bonnet-Lebrun, AS. et al. Human infrastructures correspond to higher Adélie penguin breeding success and growth rate. Oecologia 204, 675–688 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-024-05523-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-024-05523-0