Proceedings of the 8th Oamaru Penguin Symposium 2012

Abstract

This paper records the abstracts of the presentations given at the 8th Penguin Symposium, held at the Oamaru Opera House, ōamaru, New Zealand, 12 and 13 July 2012.     

2009年第五届“现代生态学讲座”国际会议综述

"现代生态学讲座"系列会议是由国内外华人生态学家联合发起、为加强现代生态学的新理论、新观点、新方法和热点问题的交流与合作的国际会议.总结了2009年6月27～29日在兰州大学举行的第五届现代生态学讲座国际会议的全部二十五场报告,围绕"宏观生态学和可持续发展科学"的会议主题,分别从森林生态学、草地生态学、全球变化生态学、根际和土壤生态学、分子和行为生态学以及农业生态学等角度进行了分类总结.全部报告可归纳为"生态系统服务功能的物质基础"和"生态系统服务的生态学机制"两个大的基础理论问题,而解决问题的途径必须在人类-自然耦合生态系统的大框架下进行探索.对该会议的进一步改善提出了一些建议.     

Penguin responses to climate change in the Southern Ocean

Penguins are adapted to live in extreme environments, but they can be highly sensitive to climate change, which disrupts penguin life history strategies when it alters the weather, oceanography and critical habitats. For example, in the southwest Atlantic, the distributional range of the ice‐obligate emperor and Adélie penguins has shifted poleward and contracted, while the ice‐intolerant gentoo and chinstrap penguins have expanded their range southward. In the Southern Ocean, the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode are the main modes of climate variability that drive changes in the marine ecosystem, ultimately affecting penguins. The interaction between these modes is complex and changes over time, so that penguin responses to climate change are expected to vary accordingly, complicating our understanding of their future population processes. Penguins have long life spans, which slow microevolution, and which is unlikely to increase their tolerance to rapid warming. Therefore, in order that penguins may continue to exploit their transformed ecological niche and maintain their current distributional ranges, they must possess adequate phenotypic plasticity. However, past species‐specific adaptations also constrain potential changes in phenology, and are unlikely to be adaptive for altered climatic conditions. Thus, the paleoecological record suggests that penguins are more likely to respond by dispersal rather than adaptation. Ecosystem changes are potentially most important at the borders of current geographic distributions, where penguins operate at the limits of their tolerance; species with low adaptability, particularly the ice‐obligates, may therefore be more affected by their need to disperse in response to climate and may struggle to colonize new habitats. While future sea‐ice contraction around Antarctica is likely to continue affecting the ice‐obligate penguins, understanding the responses of the ice‐intolerant penguins also depends on changes in climate mode periodicities and interactions, which to date remain difficult to reproduce in general circulation models.     

Reflections of a member of the bicentennial class on the Bicentennial Symposium

This perspective piece explores what it means to be a first-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine during its bicentennial year. At first, it seemed like a hefty burden to bear. However, upon listening to Dr. Eric Kandel speak at the Bicentennial Symposium at Yale on April 28, 2011, it became clear what it means to be a part of the future of science and medicine at Yale.     

Population structure and phylogeography of the Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) across the Scotia Arc

Climate change, fisheries' pressure on penguin prey, and direct human disturbance of wildlife have all been implicated in causing large shifts in the abundance and distribution of penguins in the Southern Ocean. Without mark‐recapture studies, understanding how colonies form and, by extension, how ranges shift is challenging. Genetic studies, particularly focused on newly established colonies, provide a snapshot of colonization and can reveal the extent to which shifts in abundance and occupancy result from changes in demographic rates (e.g., reproduction and survival) or migration among suitable patches of habitat. Here, we describe the population structure of a colonial seabird breeding across a large latitudinal range in the Southern Ocean. Using multilocus microsatellite genotype data from 510 Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) individuals from 14 colonies along the Scotia Arc and Antarctic Peninsula, together with mitochondrial DNA data, we find strong genetic differentiation between colonies north and south of the Polar Front, that coincides geographically with the taxonomic boundary separating the subspecies P. p. papua and P. p. ellsworthii. Using a discrete Bayesian phylogeographic approach, we show that southern Gentoos expanded from a possible glacial refuge in the center of their current range, colonizing regions to the north and south through rare, long‐distance dispersal. Our findings show that this dispersal is important for new colony foundation and range expansion in a seabird species that ordinarily exhibits high levels of natal philopatry, though persistent oceanographic features serve as barriers to movement.