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Under polar and subpolar climatic conditions, volcano edifice growth and stability are affected by extreme erosion rates, mass wasting, glacier loading (and unloading), and permafrost soil conditions. Relatively small changes in temperature can lead to very different snow and ice conditions in relation to all of the above. Therefore active, shallow magmatic plumbing systems and magmatic pathways might react sensitively to even minor changes of their surrounding environmental conditions. Almost constant degassing from the summit crater of Mount Curry (Zavodovski Island) and the presence of an active lava lake within the summit crater of Mount Michael (Saunders Island) suggest the existence of shallow magmatic plumbing systems at both volcanoes. They therefore represent exceptional study sites for investigating volcano processes under subpolar climatic conditions. Because of their remoteness, none of these islands are equipped with permanently installed ground-based instruments. We observe and quantify surface displacements related to volcanic activity, fumarolic activity, tectonic activity in the Scotia arc, as well as glacier flow from high-resolution combined TerraSAR-X and PAZ interferometry and amplitude offsets. Multi-temporal topographic data are available through the TanDEM-X SAR satellite mission and photogrammetric surveys conducted in April-Mai 2019 at Saunders Island and in January-February 2023 on Zavodovski Island. Here we introduce the first results of combining and exploring UAV photogrammetry with SAR satellite data. We present a geomorphological and structural analysis of Zavodovski Island and the outer subaerial and shallower submarine flanks of Saunders Island. We also estimate the glacier volume and volume change over time on Saunders as well as surface dynamics at Zavodovski. With this study we highlight the unprecedented detail and the valuable information that can be retrieved from tasked and targeted TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, and PAZ satellite acquisitions coupled

Animal-borne telemetry devices provide essential insights into the life-history strategies of far-ranging species and allow us to understand how they interact with their environment. Many species in the seabird family Alcidae undergo a synchronous moult of all primary flight feathers during the non-breeding season, making them flightless and more susceptible to environmental stressors, including severe storms and prey shortages. However, the timing and location of moult remains largely unknown, with most information coming from studies on birds killed by storms or shot at sea. Using light-level geolocators with saltwater immersion loggers, we develop a method for determining flightless periods in the context of the annual cycle. Four Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica) were equipped with geolocator/immersion loggers on each leg to attempt to overcome issues of leg-tucking in plumage while sitting on the water, which confounds the interpretation of logger data. Light level and saltwater immersion time-series data were combined to correct for this issue. This approach was adapted and applied to 40 puffins equipped with the standard practice deployments of geolocators on one leg only. Flightless periods consistent with moult were identified in the dual-equipped birds, whereas moult identification in single-equipped birds was less definitive and should be treated with caution. Within the dual-equipped sample, we present evidence for two flightless moult periods per non-breeding season in two puffins that undertook more extensive migrations (> 2000km), and were flightless for up to 76 days in a single non-breeding season. A biannual flight feather moult is highly unusual among non-passerine birds, and may be unique to birds that undergo catastrophic moult, i.e. become flightless when moulting. Though our conclusions are based on a small sample, we have established a freely available methodological framework for future investigation of the moult patterns of this and other seabird species.

If not carefully managed, harvesting of krill risks disturbing the ecological balance of many Antarctic and sub-Antarctic sites where krill-dependent predators feed. One of the least disturbed sites anywhere within the Southern Ocean and one where krill fishing has so far been virtually non-existent is the South Sandwich Islands volcanic archipelago. Some of the main krill predators breeding at the South Sandwich Islands are penguins, with five species breeding on the islands, the dominant species of which is the chinstrap penguin. In this paper we report on the results of ARGOS PTT deployments during the chinstrap penguin chick-rearing period, using the recorded foraging trips to develop habitat models. Foraging habitats used by chinstrap penguins during the chick-rearing period were best characterised by distance from the colony and sea surface temperature and, using these two covariates, we predicted foraging habitat use around all islands. We show that the provisions of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Marine Protected Area ensure that chinstrap penguins, and other krill-dependent predators with similar foraging ranges, likely have robust protection during the summer. During the winter, when krill predators are likely to forage further offshore, seasonal sea ice provides a physical barrier to exclude the fishery, again ensuring the islands’ unique biodiversity receives strong protection. However, to the north of the marginal sea ice zone, competition between krill predators and the fishery could exist if the fishery were ever to explore new locations for resource extraction. We make a number of conclusions, including the need for winter tracking data to inform future management options.

Changes in the physical environment along the Antarctic Peninsula have been among the most rapid anywhere on the planet. In concert with environmental change, the potential for direct human disturbance resulting from tourism, scientific programs, and commercial fisheries continues to rise in the region. While seabirds, such as the gentoo penguin Pygoscelis papua, are commonly used to assess the impact of these disturbances on natural systems, research efforts are often hampered by limited spatial coverage and lack of temporal resolution. Using a large‐scale remote time‐lapse camera network and a modeling framework adapted from capture‐recapture studies, we assess drivers of intra‐ and inter‐annual dynamics in gentoo penguin breeding success across nearly the entire species’ range in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. We quantify the precise timing of egg/chick mortality within each season and examine the role of precipitation events, tourism visitation, and fishing activity for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba (a principal prey resource in the Antarctic) in these processes. We find that nest failure rates are higher in the egg than the chick stage and that neither krill fishing nor tourism visitation had a strong effect on gentoo penguin breeding success. While precipitation events had, on average, little effect on nest mortality, results suggest that extreme weather events can precipitate sharp increases in nest failure. This study highlights the importance of continuous ecosystem monitoring, facilitated here by remote time‐lapse cameras, in understanding ecological responses to environmental stressors, particularly with regard to the timing of events such as extreme weather., The Antarctic Peninsula is currently experiencing rapid environmental change as well as direct anthropogenic pressures. Using a remote time‐lapse camera network coupled with a novel modeling framework, we quantify the intra‐ and inter‐annual responses of gentoo penguin breeding success to these pressures. While we find little effect of average conditions on demographics, extreme environmental events can precipitate sharp increases in mortality, highlighting the importance of intra‐annual dynamics and non‐linear relationships in demographic processes.

Using satellite imagery, drone imagery, and ground counts, we have assembled the first comprehensive global population assessment of Chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) at 3.42 (95th-percentile CI: [2.98, 4.00]) million breeding pairs across 375 extant colonies. Twenty-three previously known Chinstrap penguin colonies are found to be absent or extirpated. We identify five new colonies, and 21 additional colonies previously unreported and likely missed by previous surveys. Limited or imprecise historical data prohibit our assessment of population change at 35% of all Chinstrap penguin colonies. Of colonies for which a comparison can be made to historical counts in the 1980s, 45% have probably or certainly declined and 18% have probably or certainly increased. Several large colonies in the South Sandwich Islands, where conditions apparently remain favorable for Chinstrap penguins, cannot be assessed against a historical benchmark. Our population assessment provides a detailed baseline for quantifying future changes in Chinstrap penguin abundance, sheds new light on the environmental drivers of Chinstrap penguin population dynamics in Antarctica, and contributes to ongoing monitoring and conservation efforts at a time of climate change and concerns over declining krill abundance in the Southern Ocean.

Advances in artificial intelligence for computer vision hold great promise for increasing the scales at which ecological systems can be studied. The distribution and behavior of individuals is central to ecology, and computer vision using deep neural networks can learn to detect individual objects in imagery. However, developing supervised models for ecological monitoring is challenging because it requires large amounts of human-labeled training data, requires advanced technical expertise and computational infrastructure, and is prone to overfitting. This limits application across space and time. One solution is developing generalized models that can be applied across species and ecosystems. Using over 250,000 annotations from 13 projects from around the world, we develop a general bird detection model that achieves over 65% recall and 50% precision on novel aerial data without any local training despite differences in species, habitat, and imaging methodology. Fine-tuning this model with only 1000 local annotations increases these values to an average of 84% recall and 69% precision by building on the general features learned from other data sources. Retraining from the general model improves local predictions even when moderately large annotation sets are available and makes model training faster and more stable. Our results demonstrate that general models for detecting broad classes of organisms using airborne imagery are achievable. These models can reduce the effort, expertise, and computational resources necessary for automating the detection of individual organisms across large scales, helping to transform the scale of data collection in ecology and the questions that can be addressed.

Over evolutionary time, pathogen challenge shapes the immune phenotype of the host to better respond to an incipient threat. The extent and direction of this selection pressure depend on the local pathogen composition, which is in turn determined by biotic and abiotic features of the environment. However, little is known about adaptation to local pathogen threats in wild animals. The Gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) is a species complex that lends itself to the study of immune adaptation because of its circumpolar distribution over a large latitudinal range, with little or no admixture between different clades. In this study, we examine the diversity in a key family of innate immune genes-the Toll-like receptors (TLRs)-across the range of the Gentoo penguin. The three TLRs that we investigated present varying levels of diversity, with TLR4 and TLR5 greatly exceeding the diversity of TLR7. We present evidence of positive selection in TLR4 and TLR5, which points to pathogen-driven adaptation to the local pathogen milieu. Finally, we demonstrate that two positively selected cosegregating sites in TLR5 are sufficient to alter the responsiveness of the receptor to its bacterial ligand, flagellin. Taken together, these results suggest that Gentoo penguins have experienced distinct pathogen-driven selection pressures in different environments, which may be important given the role of the Gentoo penguin as a sentinel species in some of the world's most rapidly changing environments., The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (Grant No. BB/M011224/1) for S.R.F. Sample collection was funded in part by CONICYT PIA ACT172065 GAB and Spanish Ministry of Science projects CGL2007-60369 and CTM2015-64720.

In this article, we analyze the impacts of climate change on Antarctic marine ecosystems. Observations demonstrate large-scale changes in the physical variables and circulation of the Southern Ocean driven by warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, and a positive Southern Annular Mode. Alterations in the physical environment are driving change through all levels of Antarctic marine food webs, which differ regionally. The distributions of key species, such as Antarctic krill, are also changing. Differential responses among predators reflect differences in species ecology. The impacts of climate change on Antarctic biodiversity will likely vary for different communities and depend on species range. Coastal communities and those of sub-Antarctic islands, especially range-restricted endemic communities, will likely suffer the greatest negative consequences of climate change. Simultaneously, ecosystem services in the Southern Ocean will likely increase. Such decoupling of ecosystem services and endemic species will require consideration in the management of human activities such as fishing in Antarctic marine ecosystems. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Marine Science Volume 12 is January 3, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Penguins (Sphenisciformes) are an iconic order of flightless, diving seabirds distributed across a large latitudinal range in the Southern Hemisphere. The extensive area over which penguins are endemic is likely to have fostered variation in pathogen pressure, which in turn will have imposed differential selective pressures on the penguin immune system. At the front line of pathogen detection and response, the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) provide insight into host evolution in the face of microbial challenge. TLRs respond to conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns and are frequently found to be under positive selection, despite retaining specificity for defined agonist classes. We undertook a comparative immunogenetics analysis of TLRs for all penguin species and found evidence of adaptive evolution that was largely restricted to the cell surface-expressed TLRs, with evidence of positive selection at, or near, key agonist-binding sites in TLR1B, TLR4, and TLR5. Intriguingly, TLR15, which is activated by fungal products, appeared to have been pseudogenized multiple times in the Eudyptes spp., but a full-length form was present as a rare haplotype at the population level. However, in vitro analysis revealed that even the full-length form of Eudyptes TLR15 was nonfunctional, indicating an ancestral cryptic pseudogenization prior to its eventual disruption multiple times in the Eudyptes lineage. This unusual pseudogenization event could provide an insight into immune adaptation to fungal pathogens such as Aspergillus, which is responsible for significant mortality in wild and captive bird populations.

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species' viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics (conservation legacy, conservation dependence, conservation gain, and recovery potential). We tested the framework with 181 species representing diverse taxa, life histories, biomes, and IUCN Red List categories (extinction risk). Based on the observed distribution of species' recovery scores, we propose the following species recovery categories: fully recovered, slightly depleted, moderately depleted, largely depleted, critically depleted, extinct in the wild, and indeterminate. Fifty-nine percent of tested species were considered largely or critically depleted. Although there was a negative relationship between extinction risk and species recovery score, variation was considerable. Some species in lower risk categories were assessed as farther from recovery than those at higher risk. This emphasizes that species recovery is conceptually different from extinction risk and reinforces the utility of the IUCN Green Status of Species to more fully understand species conservation status. Although extinction risk did not predict conservation legacy, conservation dependence, or conservation gain, it was positively correlated with recovery potential. Only 1.7% of tested species were categorized as zero across all 4 of these conservation impact metrics, indicating that conservation has, or will, play a role in improving or maintaining species status for the vast majority of these species. Based on our results, we devised an updated assessment framework that introduces the option of using a dynamic baseline to assess future impacts of conservation over the short term to avoid misleading results which were generated in a small number of cases, and redefines short term as 10 years to better align with conservation planning. These changes are reflected in the IUCN Green Status of Species Standard.Reconociendo que era imperativo evaluar la recuperación de especies y el impacto de la conservación, la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN) convocó en 2012 al desarrollo de una “Lista Verde de Especies” (ahora el Estatus Verde de las Especies de la UICN). Un marco de referencia preliminar de una Lista Verde de Especies para evaluar el progreso de las especies hacia la recuperación, publicado en 2018, proponía 2 componentes separados pero interconectados: un método estandarizado (i.e., medición en relación con puntos de referencia de la viabilidad de especies, funcionalidad y distribución antes del impacto) para determinar el estatus de recuperación actual (puntuación de recuperación de la especie) y la aplicación de ese método para estimar impactos en el pasado y potenciales de conservación basados en 4 medidas (legado de conservación, dependencia de conservación, ganancia de conservación y potencial de recuperación). Probamos el marco de referencia con 181 especies representantes de diversos taxa, historias de vida, biomas, y categorías (riesgo de extinción) en la Lista Roja de la IUCN. Con base en la distribución observada de la puntuación de recuperación de las especies, proponemos las siguientes categorías de recuperación de la especie: totalmente recuperada, ligeramente mermada, moderadamente mermada, mayormente mermada, gravemente mermada, extinta en estado silvestre, e inderterminada. Cincuenta y nueve por ciento de las especies se consideraron mayormente o gravemente mermada. Aunque hubo una relación negativa entre el riesgo de extinción y la puntuación de recuperación de la especie, la variación fue considerable. Algunas especies en las categorías de riesgo bajas fueron evaluadas como más lejos de recuperarse que aquellas con alto riesgo. Esto enfatiza que la recuperación de especies es diferente conceptualmente al riesgo de extinción y refuerza la utilidad del Estado Verde de las Especies de la UICN para comprender integralmente el estatus de conservación de especies. Aunque el riesgo de extinción no predijo el legado de conservación, la dependencia de conservación o la ganancia de conservación, se correlacionó positivamente con la potencial de recuperación. Solo 1.7% de las especies probadas fue categorizado como cero en los 4 indicadores de impacto de la conservación, lo que indica que la conservación ha jugado, o jugará, un papel en la mejoría o mantenimiento del estatus de la especie la gran mayoría de ellas. Con base en nuestros resultados, diseñamos una versión actualizada del marco de referencia para la evaluación que introduce la opción de utilizar una línea de base dinámica para evaluar los impactos futuros de la conservación en el corto plazo y redefine corto plazo como 10 años.

Filial imprinting is a dedicated learning process that lacks explicit reinforcement. The phenomenon itself is narrowly heritably canalized, but its content, the representation of the parental object, reflects the circumstances of the newborn. Imprinting has recently been shown to be even more subtle and complex than previously envisaged, since ducklings and chicks are now known to select and represent for later generalization abstract conceptual properties of the objects they perceive as neonates, including movement pattern, heterogeneity and inter-component relationships of same or different. Here, we investigate day-old Mallard ( Anas platyrhynchos ) ducklings’ bias towards imprinting on acoustic stimuli made from mallards’ vocalizations as opposed to white noise, whether they imprint on the temporal structure of brief acoustic stimuli of either kind, and whether they generalize timing information across the two sounds. Our data are consistent with a strong innate preference for natural sounds, but do not reliably establish sensitivity to temporal relations. This fits with the view that imprinting includes the establishment of representations of both primary percepts and selective abstract properties of their early perceptual input, meshing together genetically transmitted prior pre-dispositions with active selection and processing of the perceptual input.

Advances in artificial intelligence for computer vision hold great promise for increasing the scales at which ecological systems can be studied. The distribution and behavior of individuals is central to ecology, and computer vision using deep neural networks can learn to detect individual objects in imagery. However, developing supervised models for ecological monitoring is challenging because it needs large amounts of human-labeled training data, requires advanced technical expertise and computational infrastructure, and is prone to overfitting. This limits application across space and time. One solution is developing generalized models that can be applied across species and ecosystems. Using over 250,000 annotations from 13 projects from around the world, we develop a general bird detection model that achieves over 65% recall and 50% precision on novel aerial data without any local training despite differences in species, habitat, and imaging methodology. Fine-tuning this model with only 1000 local annotations increase these values to an average of 84% recall and 69% precision by building on the general features learned from other data sources. Retraining from the general model improves local predictions even when moderately large annotation sets are available and makes model training faster and more stable. Our results demonstrate that general models for detecting broad classes of organisms using airborne imagery are achievable. These models can reduce the effort, expertise, and computational resources necessary for automating the detection of individual organisms across large scales, helping to transform the scale of data collection in ecology and the questions that can be addressed.

Many of the species in decline around the world are subject to different environmental stressors across their range, so replicated large-scale monitoring programmes, are necessary to disentangle the relative impacts of these threats. At the same time as funding for long-term monitoring is being cut, studies are increasingly being criticised for lacking statistical power. For those taxa or environments where a single vantage point can observe individuals or ecological processes, time-lapse cameras can provide a cost-effective way of collecting time series data replicated at large spatial scales that would otherwise be impossible. However, networks of time-lapse cameras needed to cover the range of species or processes create a problem in that the scale of data collection easily exceeds our ability to process the raw imagery manually. Citizen science and machine learning provide solutions to scaling up data extraction (such as locating all animals in an image). Crucially, citizen science, machine learning-derived classifiers, and the intersection between them, are key to understanding how to establish monitoring systems that are sensitive to – and sufficiently powerful to detect –changes in the study system. Citizen science works relatively ‘out of the box’, and we regard it as a first step for many systems until machine learning algorithms are sufficiently trained to automate the process. Using Penguin Watch (www.penguinwatch.org) data as a case study, we discuss a complete workflow from images to parameter estimation and interpretation: the use of citizen science and computer vision for image processing, and parameter estimation and individual recognition for investigating biological questions. We discuss which techniques are easily generalizable to a range of questions, and where more work is needed to supplement ‘out of the box’ tools. We conclude with a horizon scan of the advances in camera technology, such as on-board computer vision and decision making.

Temporal Conceptual Model can enhance the long-term management of contaminated Complex Sites. This type of contaminated land model is defined here as the sequential or combined representation over time of single time conceptual models (named here as Snapshot Conceptual Models) including contaminant evolution, most likely causes, eventual receptor changes and uncertainties. Understanding contamination behaviour in crystalline fractured rock within tropical humid regions involves several technical complexities and typically requires long term management. This was the case of a Former Supply Well area managed over 20 years for land reuse, located in the water stressed Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo. A Temporal Conceptual Model approach was voluntary developed for the Former Supply Well area that, together with complementary characterization activities, was used to enhance the understanding, remediation and monitoring of its unconfined aquifer system. They indicated that the contamination concentrations in the Former Supply Well and multilevel wells changed intensively over time. It was identified that the contaminant distribution was controlled by the extensive rock weathering levels and variations in: pumping regimes, well reconfigurations, effects of several stages of remediation works, influence of other source areas and dynamics of a likely commingled plume. The further understanding of the hydrogeology specific conditions allowed the advancement of communication with stakeholders, management works and local land reuse plans.

Climate warming has caused the seasonal timing of many components of ecological food chains to advance (Thackeray et al. 2010, 2016). Differential shifts lead to phenological asynchrony, often referred to as trophic mismatch when it is detrimental for consumers (Cushing 1990). In the context of trophic interactions, it has been suggested that consumers will shift their phenology to adapt to shifts in the availability of their food source (Visser and Both 2005), but they rarely do so in practice (Thackeray et al. 2016; Kharouba et al. 2018). Whether such unequal shifts are detrimental or not is unresolved (Johansson and Jonzén 2012; Reed et al. 2013a; Samplonius et al. 2016; Radchuk et al. 2019; Visser and Gienapp 2019). At present there has been no consistent analysis of the links between temperature change, phenological asynchrony, and individual-to-population level impacts across taxa, trophic levels and biomes at a global scale. Instead, many of our insights into mismatch and its impacts stem from a handful of independent single-system studies, varying greatly in their conceptual basis and methodological approach. Here, we propose five criteria that all need to be met to demonstrate that temperature-mediated trophic mismatch poses a growing risk to consumers. These criteria are: 1) an ephemeral resource contributes a large proportion of the consumer’s diet; 2) asynchrony between phenology of consumer and resource is increasing over time; 3) interannual variation in asynchrony is driven by interannual variation in temperature; 4) asynchrony reduces consumer fitness, 5) mismatch impacts negatively on consumer population size or growth. We conduct a literature review of 109 papers studying 132 taxa, and find that for most taxa only two of the five criteria are met. Moreover, all five criteria are only assessed for two taxa. The most commonly-tested criteria are 1 and 2, and few studies further examined evidence for criteria 4 or 5. Furthermore, effects of mismatch are heavily skewed towards juvenile stages rather than adults. Crucially, nearly every study was conducted in Europe or North America, and most studies were on terrestrial secondary consumers. We thus lack a robust evidence base from which to draw general conclusions about the risk that climate-mediated trophic mismatch may pose to populations worldwide.

Data availability statement: No data was used in this study. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1002/2688-8319.12032. Supporting Information: eso312032-sup-0001-SuppMat.docx (21.1 KB) available at: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1002%2F2688-8319.12032&file=eso312032-sup-0001-SuppMat.docx. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article. Copyright © 2021 The Authors. 1. To be effective, the next generation of conservation practitioners and managers need to be critical thinkers with a deep understanding of how to make evidence-based decisions and of the value of evidence synthesis. 2. If, as educators, we do not make these priorities a core part of what we teach, we are failing to prepare our students to make an effective contribution to conservation practice. 3. To help overcome this problem we have created open access online teaching materials in multiple languages that are stored in Applied Ecology Resources. So far, 117 educators from 23 countries have acknowledged the importance of this and are already teaching or about to teach skills in appraising or using evidence in conservation decision-making. This includes 145 undergraduate, postgraduate or professional development courses. 4. We call for wider teaching of the tools and skills that facilitate evidence-based conservation and also suggest that providing online teaching materials in multiple languages could be beneficial for improving global understanding of other subject areas. Making informed conservation and ecosystem management choices is based upon a sound understanding of the relevant evidence. There is an increasing wealth of conservation science available, and access to this is becoming easier. But, are conservation practitioners being trained to utilize this information? In conservation, decision-making is often based upon past experience or expert knowledge, as opposed to the full body of scientific literature (e.g., Pullin, Knight, Stone, & Charman, 2004; Rafidimanantsoa, Poudyal, Ramamonjisoa, & Jones, 2018). The failure to include scientific evidence in decision-making has the potential to reduce the effectiveness of management, or even lead to detrimental actions being undertaken (Walsh, Dicks, & Sutherland, 2015). Evidence-based conservation (EBC) seeks to avoid this by providing tools to facilitate and inform decision-making. To do this, scientific evidence is collated and critically appraised for its quality and relevance, and integrated with other knowledge, experience, values and costs (Sutherland, Pullin, Dolman, & Knight, 2004). Wider adoption of EBC requires conservation professionals to be trained in its principles and taught how to use it to inform conservation decision-making. MAVA Foundation; Arcadia Fund.

The South Sandwich Volcanic Arc is one of the most remote and enigmatic arcs on Earth. Sporadic observations from rare cloud-free satellite images—and even rarer in situ reports—provide glimpses into a dynamic arc system characterised by persistent gas emissions and frequent eruptive activity. Our understanding of the state of volcanic activity along this arc is incomplete compared to arcs globally. To fill this gap, we present here detailed geological and volcanological observations made during an expedition to the South Sandwich Islands in January 2020. We report the first in situ measurements of gas chemistry, emission rate and carbon isotope composition from along the arc. We show that Mt. Michael on Saunders Island is a persistent source of gas emissions, releasing 145 ± 59 t day−1 SO2 in a plume characterised by a CO2/SO2 molar ratio of 1.8 ± 0.2. Combining this CO2/SO2 ratio with our independent SO2 emission rate measured near simultaneously, we derive a CO2 flux of 179 ± 76 t day−1. Outgassing from low temperature (90–100 °C) fumaroles is pervasive at the active centres of Candlemas and Bellingshausen, with measured gas compositions indicative of interaction between magmatic fluids and hydrothermal systems. Carbon isotope measurements of dilute plume and fumarole gases from along the arc indicate a magmatic δ13C of − 4.5 ± 2.0‰. Interpreted most simply, this result suggests a carbon source dominated by mantle-derived carbon. However, based on a carbon mass balance from sediment core ODP 701, we show that mixing between depleted upper mantle and a subduction component composed of sediment and altered crust is also permissible. We conclude that, although remote, the South Sandwich Volcanic Arc is an ideal tectonic setting in which to explore geochemical processes in a young, developing arc.

Though climate change is widely known to negatively affect the distribution and abundance of many species, few studies have focused on species that may benefit. Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua) populations have grown along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), a region accounting for ~ 30% of their global population. These trends of population growth in Gentoo Penguins are in stark contrast to those of Adelie and Chinstrap Penguins, which have experienced considerable population declines along the WAP attributed to environmental changes. The recent discovery of previously unknown Gentoo Penguin colonies along the WAP and evidence for southern range expansion since the last global assessment in 2013 motivates this review of the abundance and distribution of this species. We compiled and collated all available recent data for every known Gentoo Penguin colony in the world and report on previously unknown Gentoo Penguin colonies along the Northwestern section of the WAP. We estimate the global population of Gentoo Penguins to be 432,144 (95th CI 338,059 – 534,114) breeding pairs, with approximately 364,359 (95th CI 324,052 – 405,132) breeding pairs (85% of the population) living in the Atlantic sector. Our estimates suggest that the global population has increased by approximately 11% since 2013, with even greater increases (23%) along the WAP. The Falkland Islands population, which comprises 30% of the global population, has remained stable, though only a subset of colonies have been surveyed since the last comprehensive survey in 2010. Our assessment identifies South Georgia and sub-Antarctic islands in the Indian Ocean as being the most critical data gaps for this species.

There is growing interest in uncovering the viral diversity present in wild animal species. The remote Antarctic region is home to a wealth of uncovered microbial diversity, some of which is associated with its megafauna, including penguin species, the dominant avian biota. Penguins interface with a number of other biota in their roles as marine mesopredators and several species overlap in their ranges and habitats. To characterize the circular single-stranded viruses related to those in the phylum Cressdnaviricota from these environmental sentinel species, cloacal swabs (n = 95) were obtained from King Penguins in South Georgia, and congeneric Ad&eacute, lie Penguins, Chinstrap Penguins, and Gentoo Penguins across the South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula. Using a combination of high-throughput sequencing, abutting primers-based PCR recovery of circular genomic elements, cloning, and Sanger sequencing, we detected 97 novel sequences comprising 40 ssDNA viral genomes and 57 viral-like circular molecules from 45 individual penguins. We present their detection patterns, with Chinstrap Penguins harboring the highest number of new sequences. The novel Antarctic viruses identified appear to be host-specific, while one circular molecule was shared between sympatric Chinstrap and Gentoo Penguins. We also report viral genotype sharing between three adult-chick pairs, one in each Pygoscelid species. Sequence similarity network approaches coupled with Maximum likelihood phylogenies of the clusters indicate the 40 novel viral genomes do not fall within any known viral families and likely fall within the recently established phylum Cressdnaviricota based on their replication-associated protein sequences. Similarly, 83 capsid protein sequences encoded by the viruses or viral-like circular molecules identified in this study do not cluster with any of those encoded by classified viral groups. Further research is warranted to expand knowledge of the Antarctic virome and would help elucidate the importance of viral-like molecules in vertebrate host evolution.

Time-lapse cameras facilitate remote and high-resolution monitoring of wild animal and plant communities, but the image data produced require further processing to be useful. Here we publish pipelines to process raw time-lapse imagery, resulting in count data (number of penguins per image) and ‘nearest neighbour distance’ measurements. The latter provide useful summaries of colony spatial structure (which can indicate phenological stage) and can be used to detect movement – metrics which could be valuable for a number of different monitoring scenarios, including image capture during aerial surveys. We present two alternative pathways for producing counts: (1) via the Zooniverse citizen science project Penguin Watch and (2) via a computer vision algorithm (Pengbot), and share a comparison of citizen science-, machine learning-, and expert- derived counts. We provide example files for 14 Penguin Watch cameras, generated from 63,070 raw images annotated by 50,445 volunteers. We encourage the use of this large open-source dataset, and the associated processing methodologies, for both ecological studies and continued machine learning and computer vision development., Measurement(s)number of penguins per image • nearest neighbour distance • movement of individuals in imagesTechnology Type(s)machine learningFactor Type(s)geographic location • time of data collectionSample Characteristic - OrganismPygoscelis papua • Pygoscelis antarcticus • Pygoscelis adeliaeSample Characteristic - LocationAntarctic Peninsula • South Shetland Islands • South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.11807325

The South Sandwich Islands (SSI) are a chain of active volcanoes in the Southern Ocean and remain one of the most remote and enigmatic island arcs on Earth. The relatively recent development of the SSI over the past 20 million years has been closely linked with the formation of the Drake Passage, making this one of the youngest known volcanic arcs and therefore one of the most critical for understanding the early stages of arc geochemical evolution. Recent volcanic eruptions in the SSI have had significant impacts on local terrestrial and marine ecosystems, including some of the largest penguin colonies ever observed, through tephra deposition and from sustained volcanic degassing. Rare cloud-free satellite images over the last two decades have indicated that the summit of Mt Michael (Saunders) hosts a sustained lava lake, but until now these observations have not been ground-truthed by in-situ measurements. Long-term persistent passive outgassing at many of these volcanoes, even between eruptive phases, suggests that the SSI volcanic arc could be a significant source of volatiles to our atmosphere, and yet we lack any constraints on the degassing budgets of this volcanic arc. Here, we present novel measurements of gas chemistry, aerosol composition, and carbon isotope signature from along the South Sandwich Island arc. By combining ground-based measurements of SO2 flux with in-situ samples of plume composition using Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS), we present multi-species volatile fluxes for the major along-arc degassing sources. Further, by evaluating the carbon to sulfur ratio (C/ST) and carbon isotope composition in emitted gases together with petrological constraints from erupted tephra, we aim to test the hypothesis that carbon is supplied to the SSI by subduction of oceanic carbonated serpentinite, and thus contribute to our understanding of carbon recycling at subduction zones.

The Southern Ocean is in an era of significant change. Historic overharvesting of marine mammals and recent climatic warming have cascading impacts on resource availability and, in turn, ecosystem structure and function. We examined trophic responses of sympatric chinstrap (Pygoscelis antarctica) and gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) penguins to nearly 100 y of shared environmental change in the Antarctic Peninsula region using compound-specific stable isotope analyses of museum specimens. A century ago, gentoo penguins fed almost exclusively on low-trophic level prey, such as krill, during the peak of historic overexploitation of marine mammals, which was hypothesized to have resulted in a krill surplus. In the last 40 y, gentoo penguin trophic position has increased a full level as krill declined in response to recent climate change, increased competition from recovering marine mammal populations, and the development of a commercial krill fishery. A shifting isotopic baseline supporting gentoo penguins suggests a concurrent increase in coastal productivity over this time. In contrast, chinstrap penguins exhibited no change in trophic position, despite variation in krill availability over the past century. The specialized foraging niche of chinstrap penguins likely renders them more sensitive to changes in krill availability, relative to gentoo penguins, as evinced by their declining population trends in the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 40 y. Over the next century, similarly divergent trophic and population responses are likely to occur among Antarctic krill predators if climate change and other anthropogenic impacts continue to favor generalist over specialist species.

This paper describes the inner workings of a gas quenching chamber and assesses its potential for high-volume production of precision gears. The cooling manifold in the chamber surrounds the part, which sits on a rotating table. This ensures uniform flow of cooling gas across the top, bottom, and sides of the part and achieves uniform and repeatable quenching results. In addition, because the cooling nozzles can be adjusted to fit the geometry and size of the part, distortion can be effectively controlled.

Variation in the phenology of avian taxa has long been studied to understand how a species reacts to environmental changes over both space and time. Penguins (Sphenicidae) serve as an important example of how biotic and abiotic factors influence certain stages of seabird phenology because of their large ranges and the extreme, dynamic conditions present in their Southern Ocean habitats. Here, we examined the phenology of gentoo (Pygoscelis papua) and chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) at 17 sites across the Scotia arc, including the first documented monitoring of phenology on the South Sandwich Islands, to determine which breeding phases are intrinsic, or rather vary across a species range and between years. We used a novel method to measure seabird breeding phenology and egg and chick survival: time‐lapse cameras. Contrary to the long‐standing theory that these phases are consistent between colonies, we found that latitude and season had a predominant influence on the length of the nest establishment, incubation, and guard durations. We observe a trend toward longer incubation times occurring farther south, where ambient temperatures are colder, which may indicate that exposure to cold slows embryo growth. Across species, in colonies located farther south, parents abandoned nests later when eggs were lost or chicks died and the latest record of eggs or chicks in the nest occurred earlier during the breeding period. The variation in both space and time observed in penguin phenology provides evidence that the duration of phases within the annual cycle of birds is not fundamental, or genetic, as previously understood. Additionally, the recorded phenology dates should inform field researchers on the best timing to count colonies at the peak of breeding, which is poorly understood.

Despite concerted international effort to track and interpret shifts in the abundance and distribution of Adélie penguins, large populations continue to be identified. Here we report on a major hotspot of Adélie penguin abundance identified in the Danger Islands off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). We present the first complete census of Pygoscelis spp. penguins in the Danger Islands, estimated from a multi-modal survey consisting of direct ground counts and computer-automated counts of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery. Our survey reveals that the Danger Islands host 751,527 pairs of Adélie penguins, more than the rest of AP region combined, and include the third and fourth largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world. Our results validate the use of Landsat medium-resolution satellite imagery for the detection of new or unknown penguin colonies and highlight the utility of combining satellite imagery with ground and UAV surveys. The Danger Islands appear to have avoided recent declines documented on the Western AP and, because they are large and likely to remain an important hotspot for avian abundance under projected climate change, deserve special consideration in the negotiation and design of Marine Protected Areas in the region.