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Lagged response of Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) abundance to environmental variability in the Ross Sea, Antarctica

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A Comment to this article was published on 14 February 2022

Abstract

Environmental variability drives Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) population dynamics through its effects on vital rates (e.g., survival, dispersal, or breeding success) resulted in penguin abundance changes with time delays. The lagged effects of environmental changes on penguin abundance are still not well defined. We divided the Ross Sea region into six areas to investigate the effects of environmental changes on penguin abundance from 1982 to 2013. Time lagged analysis of 1–6 years between penguin abundance and environmental factors were conducted in our study. We found that penguin abundance was significantly correlated with environmental factors at different lag times (p < 0.05). The relationship between penguin abundance and environmental factors might differ among regions. Generalized additive model results showed that sea surface temperature negatively affected penguin abundance in most regions of the Ross Sea. In mid-Victoria Land, the relationship between sea-ice concentration and penguin abundance was quadratic. Penguin abundance peaked when sea-ice concentration was approximately 40%. Optimal ranges of environmental factors for Adélie penguin population might exist. Our study highlighted the lagged response of penguin abundance to environmental factors to further understand the effects of climate changes on the Antarctic biosphere.

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Funding

Funding was provided by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFC1406906), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41205104) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, and College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Xintong Chen, Baogang Zhang, Hao Meng, Miao Zhang, Ming Ji & Xianglan Li

  2. School of Geospatial Engineering and Science, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao Cheng

  3. University Corporation for Polar Research, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao Cheng, Baogang Zhang & Xianglan Li

  4. Heilongjiang Geomatics Center of NASG, Harbin, 150081, People’s Republic of China

    Di Wu

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  1. Xintong Chen
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Correspondence to Xianglan Li.

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Chen, X., Cheng, X., Zhang, B. et al. Lagged response of Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) abundance to environmental variability in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Polar Biol 43, 1769–1781 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02743-x

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