Past penguin colony responses to explosive volcanism on the Antarctic Peninsula

Stephen J. Roberts (), Patrick Monien (), Louise C. Foster, Julia Loftfield, Emma P. Hocking, Bernhard Schnetger, Emma J. Pearson, Steve Juggins, Peter Fretwell, Louise Ireland, Ryszard Ochyra, Anna R. Haworth, Claire S. Allen, Steven G. Moreton, Sarah J. Davies, Hans-Jürgen Brumsack, Michael J. Bentley and Dominic A. Hodgson
Additional contact information
Stephen J. Roberts: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Patrick Monien: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM)
Louise C. Foster: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Julia Loftfield: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM)
Emma P. Hocking: Northumbria University
Bernhard Schnetger: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM)
Emma J. Pearson: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University
Steve Juggins: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University
Peter Fretwell: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Louise Ireland: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Ryszard Ochyra: Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences
Anna R. Haworth: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Claire S. Allen: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)
Steven G. Moreton: NERC Radiocarbon Facility (Environment)
Sarah J. Davies: Aberystwyth University
Hans-Jürgen Brumsack: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM)
Michael J. Bentley: Science Laboratories, Durham University
Dominic A. Hodgson: British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC)

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Changes in penguin populations on the Antarctic Peninsula have been linked to several environmental factors, but the potentially devastating impact of volcanic activity has not been considered. Here we use detailed biogeochemical analyses to track past penguin colony change over the last 8,500 years on Ardley Island, home to one of the Antarctic Peninsula’s largest breeding populations of gentoo penguins. The first sustained penguin colony was established on Ardley Island c. 6,700 years ago, pre-dating sub-fossil evidence of Peninsula-wide occupation by c. 1,000 years. The colony experienced five population maxima during the Holocene. Overall, we find no consistent relationships with local-regional atmospheric and ocean temperatures or sea-ice conditions, although the colony population maximum, c. 4,000–3,000 years ago, corresponds with regionally elevated temperatures. Instead, at least three of the five phases of penguin colony expansion were abruptly ended by large eruptions from the Deception Island volcano, resulting in near-complete local extinction of the colony, with, on average, 400–800 years required for sustainable recovery.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14914 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms14914

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14914

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().