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Breeding records of kelp gulls in areas newly exposed by glacier retreat on King George Island, Antarctica

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Abstract

In recent decades, the glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula have been rapidly retreating. Using satellite images taken during the austral summer from 1989 to 2016, we estimated the glacier pattern on King George Island in the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica, and found that glacier boundaries have gradually retreated. We have recorded the kelp gull nest sites in this glacier-retreat region during four breeding seasons (from 2012–2013 to 2015–2016). Satellite images and newly established kelp gull nests suggest that glacier retreat could lead to an enlarged breeding habitat for kelp gulls.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all staff at King Sejong Station for logistic help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Polar Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea

    Won Young Lee, Yeong-Deok Han, Seongseop Park, Jin-Woo Jung & Jeong-Hoon Kim

  2. Division of Polar Ocean Environment, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea

    Hyun-Cheol Kim & Chang-Uk Hyun

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Inha University, Incheon, 22212, Republic of Korea

    Yeong-Deok Han

  4. Division of Life Sciences, Incheon National University, Incheon, 22012, Republic of Korea

    Seongseop Park

Authors
  1. Won Young Lee
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  2. Hyun-Cheol Kim
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  3. Yeong-Deok Han
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  4. Chang-Uk Hyun
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  5. Seongseop Park
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  6. Jin-Woo Jung
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  7. Jeong-Hoon Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeong-Hoon Kim.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Long-Term Ecological Researches on King George Island to Predict Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change (PE14020) and Satellite Remote Sensing on the West Antarctic Ocean Research (PE14040) funded by the Korea Polar Research Institute. This work was partly supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2014 R1A6A3A01008495).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All the procedures performed in the studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice in which the studies were conducted.

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Lee, W.Y., Kim, HC., Han, YD. et al. Breeding records of kelp gulls in areas newly exposed by glacier retreat on King George Island, Antarctica. J Ethol 35, 131–135 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-016-0500-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10164-016-0500-x

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