Version 1
: Received: 25 April 2023 / Approved: 26 April 2023 / Online: 26 April 2023 (03:01:21 CEST)
How to cite:
Krüger, L.; Santa Cruz, F.; Mardones, M.; Cárdenas, C. Variability in Krill Biomass Combined With Fixed Catch Limits Affected Pygoscelis Penguin Breeding Success in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Preprints2023, 2023040932. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202304.0932.v1
Krüger, L.; Santa Cruz, F.; Mardones, M.; Cárdenas, C. Variability in Krill Biomass Combined With Fixed Catch Limits Affected Pygoscelis Penguin Breeding Success in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Preprints 2023, 2023040932. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202304.0932.v1
Krüger, L.; Santa Cruz, F.; Mardones, M.; Cárdenas, C. Variability in Krill Biomass Combined With Fixed Catch Limits Affected Pygoscelis Penguin Breeding Success in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Preprints2023, 2023040932. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202304.0932.v1
APA Style
Krüger, L., Santa Cruz, F., Mardones, M., & Cárdenas, C. (2023). Variability in Krill Biomass Combined With Fixed Catch Limits Affected <em>Pygoscelis</em> Penguin Breeding Success in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202304.0932.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Krüger, L., Mauricio Mardones and César Cárdenas. 2023 "Variability in Krill Biomass Combined With Fixed Catch Limits Affected <em>Pygoscelis</em> Penguin Breeding Success in the Western Antarctic Peninsula" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202304.0932.v1
Abstract
Pygoscelis penguin populations in the Antarctic Peninsula have dropped dramatically in the last 50 years. The main probable cause is the reduction in Krill (Euphausia superba), the most important feeding item for Pygoscelis penguins during breeding. The scientific community has expressed concerns on the potential that competition with the fishery during periods of low krill availability might be exacerbating the effects of climate change. By bringing together data on breeding success of penguin colonies throughout the Antarctic Peninsula with information of krill availability from acoustic survey and krill fishery monitoring data, we were able to show that fishery has had in the past an effect over breeding success. That is a consequence of a management strategy based on a constant catch level enabling the fishery to maintain the same levels of production even when krill availability is low. The total catch limit may have represented a substantial amount of the available krill biomass in some years, and we detected that when the catch goes over 5% of the available biomass during summer, breeding success of penguins decreased by one third. We discuss the implications of our findings to the revised ecosystem-based management strategy of the krill fishery in Antarctica.
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
