Houstin Aymeric, Zitterbart Daniel P, Heerah Karine, Eisen Olaf, Planas-Bielsa Víctor, Fabry Ben, Le Bohec Céline
Centre Scientifique de Monaco, Département de Biologie Polaire, Monaco 98000, Principality of Monaco.
Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, Strasbourg F-67000, France.
R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Aug 31;9(8):211708. doi: 10.1098/rsos.211708. eCollection 2022 Aug.
To protect the unique and rich biodiversity of the Southern Ocean, conservation measures such as marine protected areas (MPAs) have been implemented. Currently, the establishment of several additional protection zones is being considered based on the known habitat distributions of key species of the ecosystems including emperor penguins and other marine top predators. However, the distribution of such species at sea is often insufficiently sampled. Specifically, current distribution models focus on the habitat range of adult animals and neglect that immatures and juveniles can inhabit different areas. By tracking eight juvenile emperor penguins in the Weddell Sea over 1 year and performing a meta-analysis including previously known data from other colonies, we show that conservation efforts in the Southern Ocean are insufficient for protecting this highly mobile species, and particularly its juveniles. We find that juveniles spend approximately 90% of their time outside the boundaries of proposed and existing MPAs, and that their distribution extends beyond (greater than 1500 km) the species' extent of occurrence as defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Our data exemplify that strategic conservation plans for the emperor penguin and other long-lived ecologically important species should consider the dynamic habitat range of all age classes.
为保护南大洋独特而丰富的生物多样性，已实施了诸如海洋保护区（MPA）等保护措施。目前，正基于包括帝企鹅和其他海洋顶级捕食者在内的生态系统关键物种已知的栖息地分布情况，考虑设立几个额外的保护区。然而，此类物种在海上的分布情况往往采样不足。具体而言，当前的分布模型侧重于成年动物的栖息地范围，而忽视了幼崽和幼体可能栖息在不同区域这一情况。通过对威德尔海的八只幼年帝企鹅进行为期一年的追踪，并对包括其他栖息地先前已知数据在内的研究进行荟萃分析，我们发现南大洋的保护措施不足以保护这种高度洄游的物种，尤其是其幼体。我们发现，幼体约90%的时间都在拟议和现有海洋保护区边界之外度过，并且它们的分布范围超出了（超过1500公里）国际自然保护联盟所定义的该物种出现范围。我们的数据表明，针对帝企鹅和其他具有重要生态意义的长寿物种的战略保护计划应考虑所有年龄组的动态栖息地范围。
