In colonial seabirds, differences in the nesting or fledging success have been associated with differences in nest position within the breeding aggregation (subcolony): less successful nests are located on the periphery, with more successful nests closer to the center. For Pygoscelid penguins, central nests tend to be larger, with nest size being an indicator of individual quality because stones must be gathered singly, so more stones reflect more individual effort. Competition for nest materials, including the collection of materials from another’s nest, has also frequently been described in penguins and other colonial seabirds. We used the data collected during the incubation stage from a total of 20 subcolonies at two separate breeding colonies of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) on Ross Island (Antarctica) to test the influence of nest position on breeding success. We also investigated how competition for nest stones could occur at different intensities depending on size of the subcolony, nest position, and quality within a subcolony. We found that peripheral nests experienced lower breeding success and higher number of individuals attempting to remove stones with higher removal success rates than from nests toward the center. The higher costs associated with maintaining and defending nests that incur higher removal pressure could be an additional factor involved in the lower breeding success of peripheral nests.

在群居海鸟中，筑巢或羽化成功率的差异与繁殖群（亚群）内巢穴位置的差异有关：较不成功的巢穴位于外围，而较成功的巢穴更靠近中心。对于Pygoscelid企鹅来说，中央巢穴往往更大，巢穴大小是个体质量的指标，因为石头必须单独收集，所以更多的石头反映了更多的个人努力。企鹅和其他殖民地海鸟也经常描述对巢材料的竞争，包括从另一个巢中收集材料。我们使用了在孵化阶段从阿德利企鹅两个独立繁殖群的总共 20 个亚群收集的数据（Pygoscelis adeliae）在罗斯岛（南极洲）测试巢位置对繁殖成功的影响。我们还研究了巢石的竞争如何以不同的强度发生，这取决于亚群的大小、巢位置和亚群内的质量。我们发现，与从巢穴朝向中心相比，外围巢穴的繁殖成功率较低，并且尝试以更高的去除成功率去除结石的个体数量更多。与维护和保护巢穴相关的更高成本会导致更高的移除压力，这可能是导致外围巢穴繁殖成功率较低的另一个因素。