Juvenile emperor penguin range calls for extended conservation measures in the Southern Ocean.

ABSTRACT: To protect the unique and rich biodiversity of the Southern Ocean, conservation measures such as marine protected areas (MPAs) have been implemented. Currently, the establishment of several additional protection zones is being considered based on the known habitat distributions of key species of the ecosystems including emperor penguins and other marine top predators. However, the distribution of such species at sea is often insufficiently sampled. Specifically, current distribution models focus on the habitat range of adult animals and neglect that immatures and juveniles can inhabit different areas. By tracking eight juvenile emperor penguins in the Weddell Sea over 1 year and performing a meta-analysis including previously known data from other colonies, we show that conservation effort

SUBMITTER: Houstin A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9428539 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature