276 resultados para Penguin Rookery


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Breeding distribution of the Adelie penguin, Pygoscelis adeliae, was surveyed with Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) data along the coastline of Antarctica, an area covering approximately 330° of longitude. An algorithm was designed to minimize the radiometric contribution from exogenous sources and to retrieve Adelie penguin colony location and spatial extent from the ETM+ data. In all, 9143 individual pixels were classified as belonging to an Adelie penguin colony class out of the entire dataset of 195 ETM+ scenes, where the dimension of each pixel is 30 m by 30 m, and each scene is approximately 180 km by 180 km. Pixel clustering identified a total of 187 individual Adelie penguin colonies, ranging in size from a single pixel (900 m**2) to a maximum of 875 pixels (0.788 km**2). Colony retrievals have a very low error of commission, on the order of 1 percent or less, and the error of omission was estimated to be 2.9 percent by population based on comparisons with direct observations from surveys across east Antarctica. Thus, the Landsat retrievals can successfully locate Adelie penguin colonies that account for ~97 percent of a regional population. Geographic coordinates and the spatial extent of each colony retrieved from the Landsat data are available publically. Regional analysis found several areas where the Landsat retrievals suggest populations that are significantly larger than published estimates. Six Adelie penguin colonies were found that are believed to be unreported in the literature.

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Although long-range atmospheric transport has been described as the predominant mechanism for exposing polar regions to persistent organic pollutants (POPs), recent studies have suggested that bird activity can also contribute substantially to contaminant levels in some environments. However, because the species so far reported have all been migratory, it has not been demonstrated conclusively whether locally elevated contamination represents transport from lower latitudes by the migrating birds or, alternatively, redistribution and concentration of contaminants that were already present in the high-latitude environments. The present study demonstrates, for the first time, that several POPs are present in elevated concentrations in an environment frequented by a non-migratory species (Adelie penguins) that spends its entire life in the Antarctic. Levels of POPs, such as p,p'-DDE, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), chlordanes (CHLs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), were 10 to 100-fold higher in soil samples from penguin colonies than from reference areas. This significant difference is likely related to local penguin activity, such as a higher abundance of guano and the presence of bird carcasses. This hypothesis is also supported by a higher percentage of persistent congeners (PCB 99, 118, 138 and 153) in the soil from the colonies compared to the reference areas. This profile of PCB congeners closely matched profiles seen in penguin eggs or penguin blood.