Potential for redistribution of post-moult habitat for Eudyptes penguins in the Southern Ocean under future climate conditions.

ABSTRACT: Anthropogenic climate change is resulting in spatial redistributions of many species. We assessed the potential effects of climate change on an abundant and widely distributed group of diving birds, Eudyptes penguins, which are the main avian consumers in the Southern Ocean in terms of biomass consumption. Despite their abundance, several of these species have undergone population declines over the past century, potentially due to changing oceanography and prey availability over the important winter months. We used light-based geolocation tracking data for 485 individuals deployed between 2006 and 2020 across 10 of the major breeding locations for five taxa of Eudyptes penguins. We used boosted regression tree modelling to quantify post-moult habitat preference for southern rockhopper (E.

SUBMITTER: Green CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10099906 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature