Geochemical record of high emperor penguin populations during the Little Ice Age at Amanda Bay, Antarctica

Huang, Tao; Yang, Liwei; Chu, Zhuding; Sun, Liguang; Yin, Xijie

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.166

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Penguin‐derived elements including P are transported from marine to terrestrial system by penguin foraging and enter the sediment in the form of guano (Sands et al, 1998; Yang et al, 2019). Eventually, P is interpreted as reflecting the amount of guano input and thus the size of the penguin population (Gao et al, 2018; Huang et al, 2014, 2016; Sun et al, 2000).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abandonment of Penguin Subcolonies in the Late Nineteenth Century on Inexpressible Island, Antarctica

Yang

et al. 2020

JGR Biogeosciences

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The impact of climate and weather on penguin ecology has attracted much research attention. To reconstruct the history of the penguin population, penguin carcasses on the surface and three ornithogenic sediment profiles were collected in a ditch area beneath abandoned penguin subcolonies on a high terrace to the northwest of the modern colony in Seaview Bay, on Inexpressible Island, East Antarctica. A rapid increase in penguin-derived element contents in the sediment profiles at~1700 Common Era (CE) indicates an increase in the penguin population of research area at the end of the Little Ice Age. However, surficial carcasses, geochemical characteristics of the sediment profiles, and field evidence indicate the subsequent abandonment of these penguin subcolonies. A period of intensified streamflow activity resulting from meltwater is a possible explanation for the colony abandonment. The dating results of the carcasses and sediment profiles constrain this event to around the late nineteenth century. The meltwater streams can be attributed to the interaction between enhanced moist air mass transport to the coastline of Victoria Land, rising temperatures, and the sloping topography. Comparisons with other regional records suggest that this type of event is common across East Antarctica and has significant impacts on penguin ecology.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abandonment of Penguin Subcolonies in the Late Nineteenth Century on Inexpressible Island, Antarctica

Yang

et al. 2020

JGR Biogeosciences

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“…An increase in the penguin population during the LIA explains the higher concentration of phosphorus and allochthonous biotic elements in the lake sediments (as observed by Hu et al, 2013;Huang et al, 2016); however, it does not explain the lack of erosion at that time, nor the suppression of autochthonous diatom numbers observed in that time.…”

Section: Pressure Of Penguin Manuring On the Lake's Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…A suspension in leachates carries some particulate biotic elements, for example, undigested diatoms, algae from food or microbial mats formed in situ on the surface of ornithogenic soil, as well as calcium phosphate that is abundant in guano of birds feeding on krill, crustaceans with chitinous exoskeleton. Guano deposits (Baroni and Orombelli, 1994;Emslie, 2001) or calcium phosphate, released from mineralized chitin of krill (Tatur et al, 1997), is commonly used in paleolimnological and paleopedological studies as a marker of penguin activity and even as an indicator of population size changes over time (Huang et al, 2011(Huang et al, , 2016Liu et al, 2005;Sun et al, 2000;Wang et al, 2007).…”

Section: Pressure Of Penguin Manuring On the Lake's Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of the ‘Little Ice Age’ climate cooling on the maar lake ecosystem affected by penguins: A lacustrine sediment record, Penguin Island, West Antarctica

Wasiłowska

Tatur

Pushina³

et al. 2017

The Holocene

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A Pliocene-age volcano on Penguin Island became active again in the Pleistocene/Holocene, forming the main cone of the island – Deacon Peak, and leaving late-Holocene phreatomagmatic craters, including ‘Petrel Crater’, about 200 m in diameter and filled currently by a maar lake with a flat bottom at 18 m water depth. Petrographic, geochemical, photosynthetic pigment, and diatom data from the 72-cm-long sediment core reveal that the crater was initially a marine lagoon with typical phytoplankton assemblages. Most probably, tectonic–volcanic activity about 1250 years ago, documented in tephra fallout, triggered an abrupt glacio-isostatic uplift that separated the lake from the sea. The horizon of tephra, probably from the Deception Island volcano, marks a sudden change in environment from brackish to lacustrine. The ecological evolution of the lake was initially constrained by an uplift, whereas the influence of marine water vanished with time, the lake became meromictic, and the freshwater mixolimnion layer expanded, while the monimolimnion became anoxic due to the influence of a penguin rookery situated on the shore. During the ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA), the maar may have been covered by permanent ice. A discharge of mineralized guano from the possibly enlarged penguin rookery on the lake shore caused an expansion of the anoxic monimolimnion to the ice surface and an important reduction of autochthonous lacustrine biota of the maar, whereas a substantially increased participation of allochthonous biota passively supplied with guano. That record in the lake sediment core reaffirms the occurrence of a regional LIA event in the maritime Antarctic.

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“…New biomarker techniques applied to dated lake sediment cores have unlocked the opportunity to examine long-term population trends among colonial nesting seabirds and seaducks. Lipophilic biomarkers identified from bird feces (sterols and stanols), along with more traditional geochemical biomarkers such as stable nitrogen isotopes (δ 15 N) preserved in pond sediments, allow for a multiproxy reconstruction of population changes from sedimentary records over decades to centuries (4, 5). This is because nutrient flow from bird guano and related deposition is dynamic and reflects the number of birds present or absent as nesting populations change over time (4, 6).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…We examine changes in δ 15 N, as well as sterols and stanols, in dated sediment records from ponds on nesting islands, as an index to reconstruct colony occupancy of eiders through centuries. In contrast to other studies, which have often focused on one colony location (5, 9), we present data from many island colonies distributed across a large geographic range in Hudson Strait, Nunavut—the core of the Arctic eider breeding range (10). At these same island colonies, there is significant δ 15 N enrichment in moss and soil samples compared with noncolony islands and mainland reference sites (11), indicating that nutrients originate from a trophically elevated source.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multicentury perspective assessing the sustainability of the historical harvest of seaducks

Hargan

Gilchrist

Clyde

et al. 2019

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Where available, census data on seabirds often do not extend beyond a few years or decades, challenging our ability to identify drivers of population change and to develop conservation policies. Here, we reconstruct long-term population dynamics of northern common eiders (Somateria mollissima borealis). We analyzed sterols together with stable nitrogen isotopes in dated pond sediment cores to show that eiders underwent broadscale population declines over the 20th century at Canadian subarctic breeding sites. Likely, a rapidly growing Greenland population, combined with relocation of Inuit to larger Arctic communities and associated increases in the availability of firearms and motors during the early to mid-20th century, generated more efficient hunting practices, which in turn reduced the number of adult eiders breeding at Canadian nesting islands. Our paleolimnological approach highlights that current and local monitoring windows for many sensitive seabird species may be inadequate for making key conservation decisions.

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Geochemical record of high emperor penguin populations during the Little Ice Age at Amanda Bay, Antarctica

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

Abandonment of Penguin Subcolonies in the Late Nineteenth Century on Inexpressible Island, Antarctica

Abandonment of Penguin Subcolonies in the Late Nineteenth Century on Inexpressible Island, Antarctica

Impact of the ‘Little Ice Age’ climate cooling on the maar lake ecosystem affected by penguins: A lacustrine sediment record, Penguin Island, West Antarctica

Multicentury perspective assessing the sustainability of the historical harvest of seaducks

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