SEE-Life: Long-term observatory of king penguin ecophysiology, behaviour, growth and breeding success

The earth’s environment is changing at an unprecedented rate and the effects of global change are even stronger in what used to be pristine ecosystems, such as polar ecosystems. Understanding to what extent polar animals are resilient to current changes requires a dual approach. On one hand, demographic monitoring of seabird colonies enables critical insights into the mechanisms affecting colony performance, from changes in oceanographic processes to the availability and suitability of marine resources. On the other hand, detailed knowledge of individual seabirds’ physiological and behavioural responses and adaptations (and their limitations) to cope with their unique environments (a life shared between periods at sea and on-land) is needed to understand and predict if, and to what, extent individuals and populations will be able to cope (or not) with environmental change.

The ECONERGY #119 polar project has a long history in understanding the intricacies of king penguin ecophysiology and behaviour, and the extent to which physiological and behavioural responses provide adaptive responses to the environment (https://ipev119.wixsite.com/econergie119). The project made the transition from experimental approaches towards a long-term observatory framework of king penguin biology over the past 10 years, which is now acknowledged by the CNRS SEE-Life label. The aim of this renewal application is to pursue the detailed yearly monitoring of king penguin breeding in Crozet Archipelago initiated more than 10 years ago, especially to shed light on:
1. The impact of climatic conditions (especially heat waves) on king penguin’s physiology, behaviour, growth and reproductive success
2. The heterogeneity existing in the breeding environment on land and its consequences on king penguin biology
3. The inter-relationships between king penguin performance at sea and on-land
4. The potential use of remote sensing and AI to study penguin biology at a broader geographical scale.

To this aim, a yearly detailed monitoring of 50-60 breeding pairs in contrasted areas of the colony will continue to be conducted, which includes the collection of phenological, life-history, behavioural and physiological data on both breeding adults and their chicks. A subsample of the breeding adults will also be equipped with state-of-the-art biologgers to investigate their performance and behaviour at sea in collaboration with IPEV project #394. The time-lapse cameras and weather stations already installed will be expanded to gather a maximum of biotic and abiotic information in 3 king penguin colonies (collaboration with IPEV #1258 project and Oxford University) including the colony in which we are conducting our detailed yearly monitoring.

Such a detailed long-term monitoring is crucial to fully grasp the threats that king penguin populations are facing in the context of rapid environmental changes (e.g. heat stress), and to better predict the future fate of this species based on its physiological and behavioural responses to environmental constraints.