The Aquatic World of Penguins

Biology of Fish-Birds
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-3-031-33989-9
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 567 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 1045 g

Reihe: Fascinating Life Sciences

Centuries ago, when penguins were first encountered by European explorers, they were not thought to be birds but rather a fish-like relative. Subsequent accumulation of knowledge has shown penguins to be an avian species with unrivaled aquatic attributes, owing to a number of evolutionary adaptations: shape change, low drag, ability to regulate buoyancy, and extraordinary surface compliancy from their featheration. They are indeed the most extremely specialized diving bird, having given up flight (which otherwise is hugely advantageous) to the benefit of underwater prowess (such as speed, maneuverability and an ability to exploit an extraordinary range of depths). This flightlessness, however, also comes with costs that are substantial for a seabird (such as the inability to cover large distances quickly in reaction to ephemeral prey); and the energy needed to cope with moving through an aqueous environment, which is more resistant than air. For penguins, the high energetic costs inexploiting the ocean environment thus makes them especially sensitive to changes in food availability or their access to their prey.

While a number of “penguin books” cover the natural history, mainly of breeding aspects, few address in much detail the incredible aquatic nature of these creatures. A huge amount of information has been amassed over recent past decades thanks to dramatic advances in microelectronics, bio-logging and maturation of some long-term studies of penguin life history. This work represents an integration of all these data with charts, maps and graphs, along with richly illustrated photos by experts in the field.

Zielgruppe

Upper undergraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wilson, Rory P

Ainley, David G

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Ökologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Tierphysiologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

SECTION I – IN THE BEGINNING



CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE FISH-BIRD

General discussion of penguins and substance of the book

An Impressive Number of Penguin Species: Evolution of Their Unique

Capabilities

Penguin Species Radiation and the Ontogeny of their Watery World

Penguin Evolution: Body Size and Climate

Penguin Evolution: Radiation into Vacant Niches

Penguin Evolution: Body Size and Crossing the Sea-Land Boundary



Figure 1. The array of current penguin species, a gradation

in size and attributes that allows co-existence or not.



CHAPTER 2. WHY PENGUINS COME TO LAND, A TIRESOME BUSINESS



SECTION II – PENGUIN MARINE HAUNTS AND FOOD HABITS



CHAPTER 3. PENGUINS IN THEIR OCEAN HABITATS

Oceanographic Fronts and Water Masses Important to Penguins: General

Discussion

Penguins Require High Productivity Water Masses of the Southern

Hemisphere

Large Scale: Oceanographic Boundaries and the At-sea Distribution of

Penguins

Southern Boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Emperor and King penguins

Adélie and Chinstrap penguins

Antarctic Polar Front and Subantarctic Front

Gentoo and Yellow-eyed penguins

Macaroni and Royal penguins

Northern and Southern Rockhopper, Fiordland, Snares penguins

Subtropical Front and Continental Boundary Currents

Galápagos, Humboldt, Magellanic, African penguins

Blue and Little penguins



Figure 2. The juxtaposition of climatic zones and oceanic islands harboring the high diversity of penguin species.



Small Scale: Regional and Local Ocean Processes that Facilitate Penguins’

Exploits

Island wakes

Headland wakes

Shelves and banks

Submarine canyons

Shelfbreak fronts

Marginal ice zones

Thermo-/haloclines



CHAPTER 4. PENGUIN FOOD

General

Diet Quality: Survival in Cold Water

Energy density of prey

Prey size may or may not differ among penguins

Diet Comparison among Penguin Species (Ecotypes)

Polar/subpolar, mesopelagic penguins

Subpolar, demersal/benthic, continental-shelf penguins

Temperate, upper water column, continental-insular shelf penguins

Polar, upper water column, continental shelf/slope penguins

Subpolar, upper water column, continental slope/pelagic penguins

Polar, upper water column, continental slope/pelagic penguins



Figure 3. The high-energy Antarctic silverfish, mainstay in the diet of polar penguins.



CHAPTER 5. THE ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF DIET

Intraspecific Competition among/within Penguin Colonies

Foraging range is key: general discussion

A review of penguin species’ foraging range patterns

Gender Differences in Foraging Effort

Interspecific Competition among Penguins, Mammals and Fisheries

Among penguins

Penguins versus marine mammals

Penguins versus industrial fisheries





SECTION III – THE HARDWARE OF A FISH-BIRD



CHAPTER 6. PENGUIN HARDWARE FOR EXPLOITING THE OCEAN

Water, a Hard Task Master, Requiring a Unique Solution

“Hardware” of a Fish-bird

Anatomy (incl. drag coefficient)

Physiology

Energetics and movement

The effect of depth

Heat generation and loss

Figure 4. Upthrust due to air in a penguin’s respiratory spaces and in the feathers provides a force that acts to move it toward the surface, and is most magnified at shallow depths. Illustrated here is the upthrust of 3 kg penguin as a function of swim angle and depth. Note when the penguin is traveling vertically down (angle equals -90o), it must work against the >10 N upthrust (needed at the surface), which makes movement less efficient and reduces the maximum attainable speed. This effect is lessened with lower swim angles until the penguin is traveling vertically upward, in which case upthrust enhances swim speed and decreases energy expenditure.



CHAPTER 7. SIZE MATTERS - THE ALLOMETRY OF PENGUINS AT SEA

Effect of size on heat loss

Effect of size on speed

Effect of size on dive duration

Effect of size on dive depth



Figure 5. Relationship between body mass and dive duration in 15 penguin species; regression line indicates best-fit model (data from 62 published references).







Figure 6. Relationship between body mass and dive depth in 15 penguin species; regression line indicates best-fit model (data from 71 published references).





SECTION IV – THE SOFTWARE OF FISH-BIRDS



CHAPTER 8. DIPPING DOWN - THE PENGUIN DIVE

The multi-functionality of ‘the dive’ and dive descriptors

Porpoising

Travelling

V-dives

P-dives

U-dives

W-dives



CHAPTER 9. HOW PENGUINS CATCH UNCOOPERATIVE PREY

Prey acquisition, a departure from the dive ‘norm’

Performance metrics for prey capture

Catching solitary prey

Exploiting aggregated prey



Figure 7. Relationship between penguin species’ speed and

approximate speed of their prey (main diet species); dashed

line shows equivalence.





CHAPTER 10. EFFICIENT PREY LOCATION AND EXPLOITATION

Prey distribution in time and 3D space as indicated by penguins

How do non-breeding penguins maximize foraging efficiency in time and 3D

space?

How do breeding penguins maximize foraging efficiency in time and 3D

space? – The constraints of having to always ‘come home’





SECTION V – PENGUINS IN A FICKLE ENVIRONMENT



CHAPTER 11. PENGUINS AS PREY

Basic Law of the Sea: Big Fish Eat Little Fish

Seals as Predators

Seals’ hunting behavior

Penguins avoiding seals

Fur Seals as predators

Sea Lions as predators

Killer Whales as predators

Sharks as predators



CHAPTER 12. PENGUINS IN A CHANGING OCEAN

Penguins have been Creatures of a Changing Ocean throughout their History

How will they Cope Now as they Also Deal with Humans?





CHAPTER 13. A MISCELLANY OF PENGUINS AT SEA

Navigation – the Sun and directional ocean currents

Communication – vision and sound: head patterns and contact calling

At-sea behaviors – cohesion and structure/behavior of flocks (sleep,

preening)



THE LAST WORD --- Eulogizing Penguins

Figure 9. Galápagos Penguins beginning to round up a school of fish; photo T. De Roy

Über Autor(innen)

David Ainley has studied the upper trophic level dynamics of marine ecosystems for more than 40 years, and is a world-recognized expert on Adélie penguins. He has been on committees of the National Research Council to evaluate national environmental programs, was a member of the Marine Mammal Commission (Committee of Scientific Advisors) and state and international fisheries commissions, and has represented U.S. interests in various polar initiatives. Most recently, he initiated efforts that led to designation of the Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area within international waters of the Southern Ocean. In addition, he has served as program head for meetings of the Western Field Ornithologists, Pacific Climate Conference, Pacific Seabird Group, American Ornithologists’ Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Seabird Group, and in 2022 was awarded the Ralph W. Schreiber Conservation Award by the American Ornithological Societies. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Marine Ornithology for the past 10 years.
Rory Wilson is a professor in zoology within the department of biosciences at Swansea University, Wales, UK. He too, has been actively working with penguins for more than 40 years with understanding their marine ecology being his primary research thrust. His work involves developing and using new methods, particularly animal-attached tags, to study the behavioral ecology of enigmatic animals that are, otherwise, difficult to study. He has worked with ten penguin species but has also been involved in work in Africa, both Americas, Antarctica, Australia, the far- and middle East and Europe, with animals as diverse as albatrosses, armadillos, badgers, cheetahs, condors, sharks and sloths. He was bestowed a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2006 for his animal tag developments. He was chief scientific consultant for Nat Geo’s highly acclaimed 7-part series, ‘Great Migrations’, is listed in the top 50 conservationists in the BBC power list and is a Fellow of both the Learned Society of Wales and of Academia Europaea