Rockhopper penguins as sentinels of ecosystem change in the subantarctic Southern Ocean

• Applicant: Professorin Petra Quillfeldt, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions ; Oceanography
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 493540432

In marine habitats, seabirds can serve as valuable indicators of marine ecosystem trophic state and productivity. Recent work has pointed out important changes in marine ecosystems, and one species that is sensitive to such changes is the Southern rockhopper penguin Eudyptes chrysocome (IUCN category vulnerable). Analyses of recent and historical data suggest that rockhopper penguins survive and reproduce poorer in a warming ocean, and that climate change may affect them in several stages of the breeding and non-breeding season. Over a third of the world population of this species breed in the Falkland Islands, where the populations show a particularly strong decline, and our previous studies (2006-2011) here have pointed out reduced survival probabilities under increasingly warm ocean temperatures and lighter eggs under warmer environmental conditions. However, the underlying causes of these changes are still poorly known. The present project ties in with previous studies but we will apply newly available technology, namely much smaller GPS-acceleration data loggers to study the stages of the breeding season that are still unknown and the energy used for foraging movements, making use also of Machine Learning (i.e. artificial intelligence) methods to determine time budgets. Compound-specific stable isotope analyses and metabarcoding of fecal samples will be used to study the diet during different stages of the breeding cycle. We will also employ time-lapse cameras and employ citizen science via “Penguin watch” – a toolkit for extracting large-scale data from camera imagery and engaging the public. Overall, we aim to understand what makes Southern rockhopper penguins particularly sensitive to warming ocean conditions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants