Project

4088

Chief Investigator

SOUTHWELL, Dr Colin - Australian Antarctic Division

Title

Monitoring the status and trends of Antarctic seabirds to improve fisheries management and detect climate change impacts in east Antarctica

Project aims

Seabirds are useful indicators of fisheries and climate change impacts in the Southern Ocean. This project aims to develop and apply cost-effective monitoring approaches to determine population status and trends of a suite of seabirds across the AAT. Region-wide population estimates will be used to determine seabird prey requirements at spatial scales relevant to fisheries management. The methods and data will contribute to ecosystem-based management of fisheries, assessing climate change impacts, and identifying conservation needs of, and threats to, Antarctic seabirds.

Project gallery


Project Summary of the Season 2012/13

During the 2012-13 season we completed population surveys of Adelie penguins in the Windmill Islands and emperor penguins at Amanda Bay and Taylor Glacier, collected faecal samples of several seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions, serviced and downloaded remote cameras overlooking colonies of penguin and seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions

Project Summary of the Season 2013/14

During the 2013-14 season we completed population surveys of Adelie penguins in the Mawson region and emperor penguins at Taylor Glacier and Cape Darnley, collected faecal samples of several seabird species in the Mawson region, undertook archeological digs at Casey and Mawson, and serviced and downloaded remote cameras overlooking colonies of penguin and seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions. We also published papers on new population surveys and diet assessment methods, on population change of emperor penguins at Taylor Glacier, and a continental satellite assessment of Adelie penguin distribution.

Project Summary of the Season 2014/15

During the 2014-15 season we completed population surveys of Adelie penguins in the Mawson region and emperor penguins at Taylor Glacier, collected faecal samples of several seabird species in the Mawson region, and serviced and downloaded remote cameras overlooking colonies of penguin and seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions. We also published or submitted papers on re-constructing historical Adelie penguin abundance, new population surveys of Adelie penguins, decadal change in Adelie penguin populations and an energetics model for Adelie penguins.

Project Summary of the Season 2015/16

During the 2015-16 season we:
•   completed population surveys of Adélie penguins in the Mawson and Davis regions
•   completed population surveys of Emperor penguins at Taylor Glacier and Amanda Bay
•   commenced a population survey of snow petrels and flying seabirds in the Davis region
•   contributed to a report on Important Bird Areas
•   collected faecal samples of several seabird species in the Mawson and Davis regions
•   serviced and downloaded remote cameras overlooking colonies of penguin and seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions
•   published papers on re-constructing historical Adélie penguin abundance, decadal and millennial change in East Antarctic Adélie penguin populations, and Adélie penguin diet
•   satellite tracked Emperor penguins at the Antarctic Peninsula
•   published a paper on the reconstruction of past populations of Emperor penguins and Weddell seals and their response to past climate change.

Project Summary of the Season 2016/17

2016-17
During the 2016-17 season we:
•   completed population surveys of Adélie penguins in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions
•   completed population surveys of Emperor penguins at Taylor Glacier and Amanda Bay
•   continued population surveys of snow petrels and flying seabirds in the Davis region
•   collected faecal samples of several seabird species in the Mawson and Davis regions
•   serviced and downloaded remote cameras overlooking colonies of penguin and seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions
•   published papers on Adélie penguin colonisation and extinction, distribution and abundance, and prey consumption in East Antarctica

Project Summary of the Season 2017/18

During the 2017-18 season we:
•   completed regional population surveys of Adélie penguins in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions that were commenced in 2016-17 by surveying some areas missed in 2016-17 and surveying Scullin and Murray Monoliths. This work will allow an update of Adelie penguin populations and trends across most of the AAT.
•   undertook population surveys of Emperor penguins Amanda Bay. For the first time since this work started, access to Taylor Glacier was not possible at all.
•   continued population surveys of snow petrels and flying seabirds in the Davis region under project 4088 and also as a contribution to YRAA work
•   collected faecal samples of several seabird species in the Mawson and Davis regions
•   serviced and downloaded remote cameras overlooking colonies of penguin and seabird species in the Mawson, Davis and Casey regions

Final Summary of Project Achievements

Over the life of this project we:
•   Developed cost-effective methods for monitoring the status and trends in penguin and seabird populations
•   Completed East Antarctic-wide assessments of the current status and past decadal-scale trends in Adelie penguin populations
•   Continued to monitor the status and trends of Emperor penguin populations
•   Contributed to the development of satellite-based methods for assessing the distribution and abundance of Adelie and emperor penguin populations
•   Collected samples across space and time in East Antarctica for analysis of seabird diet
•   Completed an East Antarctic-wide estimate of food consumption by Adelie penguin populations that contributed to an ecological risk assessment of the spatial allocation of the allowable krill catch submitted to CCAMLR
•   Established an East Antarctic-wide network of cameras to monitor breeding success and phenology of penguins and seabirds
•   Successfully promoted camera monitoring of seabird populations in Antarctica, as evidenced by CCAMLRs adoption of new Standard Methods including camera technology and new analysis software for CCAMLRs Ecosystem Monitoring Program, and the use of cameras by other seabird researchers
•   Collected data relevant to the Draft Comprehensive Environmental Evaluation for the Davis Aerodrome Project
•   Collected data relevant to ACAP

Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature

Schwaller M.R., Southwell C.J., Emmerson L.M. (2013) Continental-scale mapping of Adélie penguin colonies from Landsat imagery, Remote sensing of environment 139. 353-364; [Ref: 15079]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2013) Large-scale occupancy surveys in East Antarctica discover new Adélie penguin breeding sites and reveal an expanding breeding distribution, Antarctic Science 25(4). 531-535; [Ref: 15150]

Jarman S.N., McInnes J.C., Faux C., Polanowski A.M., Marthick J., Deagle B.E., Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2013) Adélie Penguin Population Diet Monitoring by Analysis of Food DNA in Scats, PLoS ONE 8(12). e82227; [Ref: 15169]

Southwell C., Low M., Newbery K., Emmerson L. (2014) First comprehensive abundance survey of a newly discovered Adélie penguin breeding metapopulation in the Robinson Group of islands, Mac.Robertson Land, east Antarctica, Antarctic Science 26(3). 265-266; [Ref: 15201]

Fretwell P.T., Trathan P.N., Wienecke B., Kooyman G.L. (2014) Emperor Penguins Breeding on Iceshelves, PLoS ONE 9(1). e85285; [Ref: 15295]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2015) Remotely-operating camera network expands Antarctic seabird observations of key breeding parameters for ecosystem monitoring and management, Journal for Nature Conservation 23. 1-8; [Ref: 15440]

Southwell D., Emmerson L., Forcada J., Southwell C. (2015) A bioenergetics model for estimating prey consumption by an Adélie penguin population in east Antarctica, Marine Ecology Progress Series 526. 183-197; [Ref: 15512]

Southwell C., Emmerson L., Newbery K., McKinlay J., Kerry K., Woehler E., Ensor P. (2015) Re-constructing historical Adélie penguin abundance estimates by retrospectively accounting for detection bias, PLoS ONE 10(4). e0123540; [Ref: 15513]

Robertson G., Wienecke B., Emmerson L., Fraser A.D. (2014) Long-term trends in the population size and breeding success of emperor penguins at the Taylor Glacier colony, Antarctica, Polar Biology 37(2). 251-259; [Ref: 15636]

Southwell C.J., Emmerson L.M., McKinlay J.P., Newbery K.M., Takahashi A., Kato A., Barbraud C., DeLord K., Weimerskirch H. (2015) Spatially Extensive Standardized Surveys Reveal Widespread, Multi-Decadal Increase in East Antarctic Adélie Penguin Populations, PLoS ONE 18pp; [Ref: 15645]

Younger J., Emmerson L., Southwell C., Lelliott P., Miller K. (2015) Proliferation of East Antarctic Adélie penguins in response to historical deglaciation, BMC Evolutionary Biology 15:236. .; [Ref: 15760]

McInnes J.C., Emmerson L., Southwell C., Faux C., Jarman S.N. (2015) Simultaneous DNA-based diet analysis of breeding, non-breeding and chick Adélie penguins, Royal Society Open Science .; [Ref: 16083]

Southwell D., Emmerson L., Forcada J., Southwell C. (2015) A bioenergetics model for estimating prey consumption by an Adelie penguin population in east Antarctica, Marine Ecology Progress Series 183-197; [Ref: 16095]

Rodriguez J.P., Eguiluz V.M., Harcourt R., Hindell M., Sims D.W., Duarte C.M., Wienecke B., Thums M. (2018) Convergence of marine megafauna movement patterns in coastal and open oceans, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 3072-3077; [Ref: 16178]

Trathan P.N., Garcia-Borboroglu P., Boersma D., Bost C.A., Crawford R.J., Crossin G.T., Wienecke B. (2015) Pollution, habitat loss, fishing, and climate change as critical threats to penguins, Conservation Biology 31-41; [Ref: 16179]

Otovic S., Riley M., Hay I., McKinlay J., van den Hoff J., Wienecke B. (2018) The annual cycle of southern giant petrels Macronectes giganteus in East Antarctica, Marine Ornithology 46(2). 129-138; [Ref: 16180]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2019) Constraint in the midst of growth: decadal-scale Adélie penguin population trends at Scullin and Murray Monoliths diverge from widespread increases across East Antarctica, Polar Biology 42. 1397-1403; [Ref: 16239]

Black C., Southwell C., Emmerson L., Lunn D., Hart T. (2018) Time-lapse imagery of Adélie penguins reveals differential winter strategies and breeding site occupation, PLoS ONE 1-12; [Ref: 16244]

McInnes J.C., Emmerson L., Southwell C., Faux C., Jarman S.N. (2015) Simultaneous DNA-based analysis of diet of breeding, non-breeding and chick Adélie penguins, Royal Society Open Science 1-9; [Ref: 16246]

Southwell C., Emmerson L., Takahashi A., Kato K., Barbraud C., Delord L., Weimerskirch H. (2017) Recent studies overestimate colonization and extinction events for Adelie Penguin breeding colonies, The Auk: Ornithological Advances 134 39-50; [Ref: 16247]

Southwell C., Emmerson L., Takahashi A., Barbraud C., Delford K., Weimerskirch H. (2017) Large-scale population assessment informs conservation management for seabirds in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean: a case study of Adélie penguins, Global Ecology and Conservation 9 104-115; [Ref: 16248]

Southwell C.J., Emmerson L.M. (2013) New counts of Adélie penguin populations at Scullin and Murray monoliths, Mac. Robertson Land, East Antarctica, Antarctic Science 25(3). 381-384; [Ref: 15016]

Southwell C.J., McKinlay J., Low M., Wilson D., Newbery K., Lieser J.L., Emmerson L.M. (2013) New methods and technologies for regional-scale abundance estimation of land-breeding marine animals: application to Adélie penguin populations in East Antarctica, Polar Biology 36. 843-856; [Ref: 15069]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2020) Density-dependence forces divergent population growth rates and alters occupancy patterns of a central-place foraging Antarctic seabird, Ecology and Evolution 10 2339-2351; [Ref: 16423]

Handley J., Rouyer M-M. , Pearmain L., Warwick-Evans V., Teschke K., Hinke J., Lynch H., Emmerson L., Southwell C., Griffith G., Cardenas C.A., Franco A., Trathan P., Dias M.P. (2021) Marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas for penguins in Antarctica targets for conservation action, Frontiers in Marine Science 7 .; [Ref: 16425]

Southwell C., Smith D., Bender A., Emmerson L. (2021) A spatial reference and identification system for coastal ice-free land in East Antarctica, Polar Record .; [Ref: 16432]

Wild S., Eulaers I., Covaci A., Bossi R., Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2022) South polar skua (Catharacta maccormicki) as biovectors for long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants to Antarctica, Environmental Pollution .; [Ref: 16507]

Southwell C., Wotherspoon S., Emmerson L. (2021) Emerging evidence of resource limitation in an Antarctic seabird metapopulation after 6 decades of sustained population increase, Oecologia .; [Ref: 16524]

Emmerson L., Southwell C. (2022) Environment-triggered demographic changes cascade and compound to propel a dramatic decline of an Antarctic seabird metapopulation, Global Change Biology .; [Ref: 16583]

Berg S., Emmerson L.M., Heim C., Buchta E., Fromm T., Blaser B., Hermichen W.D., Rethemeyer J., Southwell C. (2023) Reconstructing the Paleo-Ecological Diet of Snow Petrels (Pagodroma nivea) From Modern Samples and Fossil Deposits: Implications for Southern Ocean Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences .; [Ref: 16823]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2013) First population counts at newly discovered Adélie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae breeding sites along the Wilhelm II, Queen Mary and Wilkes Land coastlines, East Antarctica, Marine Ornithology 41(2). 87-89; [Ref: 15074]

Category 2: International meeting papers

Southwell C.J., Emmerson L.M. (2014) Expanding Antarctic seabird monitoring in east Antarctica using a remote camera network: potential use for monitoring for feedback management, CCAMLR Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management WG-EMM-14/27 (restricted document); [Ref: 15638]

Southwell C.J., McKinlay J., Emmerson L.M., Takahashi A., Barbraud C., DeLord K., Weimerskirch H. (2013) Adélie penguin breeder abundance in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, . CCAMLR WG-EMM-13/09 (restricted document); [Ref: 15071]

Emmerson L., Southwell C. (2018) Considerations for CEMP data collection and submission in relation to using nest cameras to monitor surface-nesting colonial seabirds, CCAMLR WG-EMM-18/27 .; [Ref: 16253]

Southwell C., Achurch H., Cusick J., Lashko A., Newbery K., Sikka A., Emmerson L. (2018) Update on software development for analysing nest camera images through the Special CEMP Fund, CCAMLR WG-EMM-18/28. .; [Ref: 16254]

Hart T., Black C., Emmerson L., Hinke J., Southwell C. (2015) Citizen science for large-scale data extraction from a citizen science network, CCAMLR WG-EMM-15/31 .; [Ref: 16257]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2016) Krill consumption by Adélie penguins in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/65 .; [Ref: 16260]

Southwell C., Forcada J., Emmerson L., Constable A., Kawaguchi S., Trathan P. (2016) Krill consumption by crabeater seals in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/66 .; [Ref: 16261]

Emmerson L., Southwell C. (2016) Current work towards estimating krill consumption by flying seabirds in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/67 .; [Ref: 16262]

Trathan P.N., Emmerson L., Southwell C., Waluda C. (2016) A bioenergetics model assessment of the prey consumption of macaroni penguins in Subarea 48.3, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/37 .; [Ref: 16263]

Southwell C., Trathan P.N. (2016) Progress by WG-EMM-STAPP in estimating krill consumption by air-breathing predators within CCAMLR Areas, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/68 .; [Ref: 16264]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2016) Krill consumption by Adélie penguins in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/65 .; [Ref: 16089]

Southwell C., Forcada J., Emmerson L., Constable A., Kawaguchi S., Trathan P. (2016) Krill consumption by crabeater seals in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/66 .; [Ref: 16090]

Emmerson L., Southwell C. (2016) Current work towards estimating krill consumption by flying seabirds in CCAMLR Divisions 58.4.1 and 58.4.2, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/67 .; [Ref: 16091]

Trathan P.N., Emmerson L., Southwell C., Waluda C. (2016) A bioenergetics model assessment of the prey consumption of macaroni penguins in Subarea 48.3, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/37 .; [Ref: 16092]

Southwell C., Trathan P.N. (2016) Progress by WG-EMM-STAPP in estimating krill consumption by air-breathing predators within CCAMLR Areas, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/68 .; [Ref: 16093]

Hinke J., Watters G., Santos M., Korzcak-Abshire M., Milinevsky G., Barbosa A., Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2016) Progress report of the CEMP camera network in Subarea 48.1, CCAMLR WG-EMM-16/58 .; [Ref: 16094]

Category 3: Verbal presentation

Southwell C., Emmerson L., Wienecke C. (2013) Assessing and monitoring status and trends of seabirds in East Antarctica, Strategic Science in Antarctica Conference, Hobart, Australia, 24-26 June 2013 .; [Ref: 15072]

Southwell C., Emmerson L. (2013) Metapopulation-scale studies of Adélie penguins in east Antarctica: using spatial variation in the environment to understand the ecological relationships between penguins and their environment, 8th International Penguin Conference, Bristol, United Kingdom, 2-6 September. .; [Ref: 15075]

Hart T., Southwell C., Zisserman A., Emmerson L., Lynch H. (2013) Seabird autonomous systems (SAMS) and large-scale monitoring of penguins around the Southern Ocean, 8th International Penguin Conference, Bristol, United Kingdom, 2-6 September .; [Ref: 15077]

Category 6: Report

Harris C.M., Lorenz K., Fishpool L.D.C., Lascelles B., Cooper J., Coria N., Croxall J.P., Emmerson L.M., Fijn R., Jouventin P., LaRue M.A., LeMaho Y., Lynch H.J., Naveen R., Poncet S., Phillips R.A., Southwell C.J., van Franeker J.A., Weimerskirch H., Wienecke B., Woehler E.J. (2015) Important Birds Areas in Antarctica: 2015, Birdlife International and Environmental Research and Assessment Ltd 301pp; [Ref: 15637]