Monitoring program
Introduction
Adélie penguins are top-level Antarctic predators. Their main food source is krill (Euphausia superba). We are studying the amount of krill needed by penguins each year to feed themselves and their chicks. We do this by monitoring penguins over many years, as natural changes in the Antarctic environment can cause each year to be different. Environmental variations can affect the distribution of krill in certain years and this in turn can affect the penguins.
A long term monitoring program studying Adélie penguins has been run by Australian scientists at Béchervaise Island (67°35'S, 62°48'E), East Antarctica, since 1990. Similar programs are carried out by other nations working at other locations around Antarctica. These monitoring programs are run as part of the international (CCAMLR) (Convention for the Conservation of Marine Living Resources) Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP).
Béchervaise Island study site and Adélie penguin distribution around Antarctica
Related links
|
