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A method for estimating colony sizes of Adélie penguins using remote sensing imagery

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Abstract

Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) are important predators of krill (Euphausia spp.) and Antarctic silverfish (Pleuragramma antarctica) during summer, are a key indicator of the status of the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and are therefore a focal species for the Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) Ecosystem Monitoring Program. The ability to monitor the population size of species potentially affected by Southern Ocean fisheries, i.e., the Adélie penguin, is critical for effective management of those resources. However, for several reasons, direct estimates of population size are not possible in many locations around Antarctica. In this study, we combine high-resolution (0.6 m) satellite imagery with spectral analysis in a supervised classification to estimate the sizes of Adélie penguin breeding colonies along Victoria Land in the Ross Sea and on the Antarctic Peninsula. Using satellite images paired with concurrent ground counts, we fit a generalized linear mixed model with Poisson errors to predict the abundance of breeding pairs as a function of the area of current-year guano staining identified in the satellite imagery. Guano-covered area proved to be an effective proxy for the number of penguins residing within. Our model provides a robust, quantitative mechanism for estimating the breeding population size of colonies captured in imagery and identifies terrain slope as a significant component influencing apparent nesting density. While our high-resolution satellite imagery technique was developed for the Adélie penguin, these principles are directly transferrable to other colonially nesting seabirds and other species that aggregate in fixed localities.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by National Science Foundation (OPP-0217282, OPP-0823101, ANT-0739515, ANT-0944411, OPP-1109962, PLR-1255058) and New Zealand’s Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (C09X0510, C01X0505, C01X1001, CONT-21216-BKBN). Field logistics were provided by the US Antarctic Program and Antarctica New Zealand, and helicopter support was provided by PHI, Inc., and Helicopters NZ. We thank the team of counters over the years, but in particular Peter Wilson, Bruce Thomas, Brian Karl, Keven Drew, Caroline Thomson, Morgan Coleman, Quoyah Barr-Glintborg, and Mario Fichtner. The Polar Geospatial Center facilitated use of imagery for analysis, and we thank Claire Porter for assistance with image processing. We would like to thank the editor and 3 anonymous reviewers for their feedback and insight in previous drafts of this manuscript. Point Blue Conservation Science contribution #1945.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Conservation Biology Graduate Program, University of Minnesota, 1980 Folwell Avenue, Suite 200, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    M. A. LaRue

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, 113 Life Sciences Bldg, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA

    H. J. Lynch

  3. Landcare Research, P.O. Box 69040, Lincoln, 7640, New Zealand

    P. O. B. Lyver

  4. BartonK Solutions, 11 Thompson Terrace, Nelson, 7010, New Zealand

    K. Barton

  5. HT Harvey and Associates, 983 University Avenue Bldg D, Los Gatos, CA, 95032, USA

    D. G. Ainley

  6. Point Blue Conservation Science, 3820 Cypress Drive, Petaluma, CA, 94954, USA

    A. Pollard & G. Ballard

  7. Polar Oceans Research Group, P.O. Box 368, Sheridan, MT, 59749, USA

    W. R. Fraser

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  1. M. A. LaRue
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  2. H. J. Lynch
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  3. P. O. B. Lyver
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  4. K. Barton
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  5. D. G. Ainley
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  6. A. Pollard
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  7. W. R. Fraser
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  8. G. Ballard
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Correspondence to M. A. LaRue.

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LaRue, M.A., Lynch, H.J., Lyver, P.O.B. et al. A method for estimating colony sizes of Adélie penguins using remote sensing imagery. Polar Biol 37, 507–517 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-014-1451-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-014-1451-8

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