Abstract:
This datasets captures the body mass, bill length and bill depth of adult chinstrap penguins immediately after their arrival to Signy Island at the start of the annual breeding from 1996 to 2020. Penguins arriving at the beach were measured for bill length, depth, and body mass before being released where they were captured. These measurements were made in mid/late November, as chinstrap penguins arrive for the austral summer. This monitoring contributes to the CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) Ecosystem Monitoring Program (CEMP) and is part of the annual seabird Long Term Monitoring carried out by the British Antarctic Survey at Signy Island.
Ecosystems component of BAS Polar Science for Planet Earth Programme, funded by NERC.
Keywords:
Bill depth, Bill length, Chinstrap penguin, Penguin adult weight, Pygoscelis antarcticus, Signy Island
Dunn, M., Adlard, S., Lynnes, A., Briggs, D., Fox, D., & Morley, T. (2022). Annual measurements of mass of chinstrap penguins taken on arrival to Signy Island at onset of breeding season, from 1996 to 2020. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/d784af69-c92b-444c-a12e-ee0361802cb1
| Access Constraints: | There are no access constraints. |
|---|---|
| Use Constraints: | This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. |
| Creation Date: | 2021-10-05 |
|---|---|
| Dataset Progress: | Planned |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
|
| Parameters: |
|
| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK Polar Data Centre |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Michael J Dunn |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Stacey Adlard |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Amanda Lynnes |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators |
| Name | Dirk Briggs |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Derren Fox |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds |
| Name | Tim Morley |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Quality: | Accuracy within 50-100 g Sessions are ideally repeated every 4-5 days - the number of sessions vary between years depending on the time it takes for all penguins and researchers to arrive. Years with no data indicate personnel had not arrived to Signy in time to carry out this activity. |
|
| Lineage: | The mass of individual breeding chinstrap penguins are measured annually on first return to their colonies at Signy Island in November following CCAMLR (CEMP) Standard Method A1A. A random sample of adult penguins are captured on the beach as they leave the sea. Any birds already occupying territories are not sampled. Each bird is weighed to the nearest 50g. The sex of each bird is determined using bill length and depth and applying appropriate discriminate function analyses. Ideally, counts are made every fourth or fifth day, starting with the first available five day period after adults are first observed in the chinstrap chronology colony (C69 and later C66, see CCAMLR (CEMP) Standard Method A9). The weighing procedure continues until either 4 weighing sessions have been carried out or chronology colony counts indicate most/all penguins have arrived. Arriving penguins are captured when travelling on patches of snow from the beach to the colony or when resting on the beach, suggesting they are newly arrived. They are then firmly but gently put into a secure weighing jacket where bill length and depth measurements are taken before being weighed using a spring balance. Once measured, each bird is marked with non-permanent, animal-friendly stock marker on their chest to avoid recapture, and released. Handling time should not exceed 1 minute. |
|
| Temporal Coverage: | |
|---|---|
| Start Date | 1996-11-05 |
| End Date | 2017-11-20 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -60.72935 |
| Northernmost | -60.72935 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -45.58417 |
| Easternmost | -45.58417 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | South Orkney Islands |
| Detailed Location | Gourley Peninsula, Signy Island |
| Sensor(s): |
|
|---|---|
| Data Collection: | Instruments: - weighing bag - hand-net - 10kg spring balance - callipers - non-permanent, animal-safe stock marker |
| Data Storage: | 2x .csv files |
|---|