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Reflectance spectroscopy: a new approach for reconstructing penguin population size from Antarctic ornithogenic sediments

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Abstract

Reflectance spectroscopy has several advantages compared to traditional chemical methods in paleolimnology. It requires little cost, involves minimal or no sample preparation and is rapid. There has, however, been limited use of reflectance spectroscopy in polar paleolimnological studies. This paper explores the application of reflectance spectroscopy to reconstruct historical changes in penguin population size in the maritime Antarctic. Two ornithogenic sediment cores on Ardley Island, Antarctica were analyzed. Penguin droppings and weathered soils were analyzed as reference materials. Principal component analysis and linear mixing modeling were performed on the spectral data to estimate the proportion of penguin guano in the sediments and these values were used to infer historical penguin population numbers. Historical penguin population size versus time, reconstructed from reflectance spectra, and population numbers inferred from previous geochemical analysis of bio-elements, were quite similar. Our results illustrate the feasibility of rapidly inferring historical changes in penguin population size using reflectance spectroscopy on Antarctic ornithogenic sediments. Our findings suggest that this technique has potential for reconstructing past population numbers of other seabirds and mammals using lake sediments influenced by animal excrement.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Chinese Antarctic and Arctic Administration of National Oceanic Bureau for logistical support. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 40876096, 41076123, 40730107 and 40606003), open research fund from SOA Key Laboratory for Polar Science (KP2007002), the young fund for strategic research of the Chinese Polar Sciences from CAAA (No. 20070202), and the special fund for excellent PhD theses of CAS. We especially appreciate three anonymous reviewers for their critical reviews and careful corrections of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Polar Environment, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaodong Liu & Liguang Sun

  2. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, 10964, USA

    Jing Sun

  3. Instruments’ Center for Physical Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, People’s Republic of China

    Wenqi Liu

  4. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Yuhong Wang

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  1. Xiaodong Liu
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Liu.

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Liu, X., Sun, J., Sun, L. et al. Reflectance spectroscopy: a new approach for reconstructing penguin population size from Antarctic ornithogenic sediments. J Paleolimnol 45, 213–222 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-010-9493-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-010-9493-6

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