Journal
POLAR BIOLOGY
Volume 35, Issue 6, Pages 963-968Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00300-011-1138-3
Keywords
Remote sensing; Adelie penguin; Gentoo penguin; Chinstrap penguin; Macaroni penguin; Zavodovski Island
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Funding
- US National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs [NSF/OPP-0739515, NSF/OPP-0739430]
- Polar Geospatial Center [ANT 1043681]
- Government of South Georgia
- South Sandwich Islands
- Oceanites, Inc.
- Division Of Polar Programs
- Directorate For Geosciences [0739430] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
- Directorate For Geosciences [0739515] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Due to its high spatial resolution, broad spatial coverage, and cost-effectiveness, commercial satellite imagery is rapidly becoming a key component of biological monitoring in the Antarctic. While considerable success in surveying emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) has been facilitated by their large size and the visual simplicity of their habitat, there has been considerably less progress in mapping colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula and associated sub-Antarctic islands where smaller penguin species breed on topographically complex terrain composed of mixed substrates. Here, we demonstrate that Ad,lie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae), chinstrap penguin (P. antarcticus), gentoo penguin (P. papua), and macaroni penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) colonies can be detected by high-resolution (2-m multispectral, 40-50-cm panchromatic) satellite imagery and that under ideal conditions, such imagery is capable of distinguishing among groups of species where they breed contiguously. To demonstrate the potential for satellite imagery to estimate penguin population abundance, we use satellite imagery of Paulet Island (63A degrees 35'S, 55A degrees 47'W) to estimate a site-wide population of 115,673 (99,222-127,203) breeding pairs of Ad,lie penguins.
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