Protect the Antarctic Peninsula — before it’s too late

Conservation features of the terrestrial Antarctic Peninsula

Conserving landscapes used by multiple stakeholder groups requires understanding of what each stakeholder values. Here we employed a semi-structured, participatory approach to identify features of value in the terrestrial Antarctic Peninsula related to biodiversity, science and tourism. Stakeholders identified 115 features, ranging from Adélie penguin colonies to sites suitable for snowshoeing tourists. We split the features into seven broad categories: science, tourism, historic, biodiversity, geographic, habitat, and intrinsic features, finding that the biodiversity category contained the most features of any one category, while science stakeholders identified the most features of any stakeholder group. Stakeholders have overlapping interests in some features, particularly for seals and seabirds, indicating that thoughtful consideration of their inclusion in future management is required. Acknowledging the importance of tourism and other social features in Antarctica and ensuring their integration into conservation planning and assessment will increase the likelihood of implementing successful environmental management strategies into the future.

Ship traffic connects Antarctica's fragile coasts to worldwide ecosystems

Ship movements related to fishing, tourism, research, and supply expose the Antarctic continent to human impacts. Until now, only rough estimates or industry-specific information have been available to inform evidence-based policy to mitigate the introduction of nonnative marine species. Antarctica’s Southern Ocean supports a unique biota and represents the only global marine region without any known biological invasions. However, climate change is removing physiological barriers to potential invasive nonnative species and increasing ship activities are raising propagule pressure. The successful conservation of iconic Antarctic species and environments relies on addressing both climate change and direct, localized human impact. We have identified high-risk areas for introduced species and provide essential data that will underpin better evidence-based management in the region.

Antarctica, an isolated and long considered pristine wilderness, is becoming increasingly exposed to the negative effects of ship-borne human activity, and especially the introduction of invasive species. Here, we provide a comprehensive quantitative analysis of ship movements into Antarctic waters and a spatially explicit assessment of introduction risk for nonnative marine species in all Antarctic waters. We show that vessels traverse Antarctica’s isolating natural barriers, connecting it directly via an extensive network of ship activity to all global regions, especially South Atlantic and European ports. Ship visits are more than seven times higher to the Antarctic Peninsula (especially east of Anvers Island) and the South Shetland Islands than elsewhere around Antarctica, together accounting for 88% of visits to Southern Ocean ecoregions. Contrary to expectations, we show that while the five recognized “Antarctic Gateway cities” are important last ports of call, especially for research and tourism vessels, an additional 53 ports had vessels directly departing to Antarctica from 2014 to 2018. We identify ports outside Antarctica where biosecurity interventions could be most effectively implemented and the most vulnerable Antarctic locations where monitoring programs for high-risk invaders should be established.

I've got you under my skin: inflammatory response to elephant seal's lice

Seals (Phocidae) undergo an annual cycle of moulting that implies hair regeneration, and in the case of southern elephant seals, it also involves the superficial strata of the epidermis. Therefore, surviving the moulting period is crucial for their obligate and permanent ectoparasites. Throughout evolutionary time, sucking lice (Echinophtiriidae) have developed morphological, behavioural and ecological adaptations to cope with the amphibious lifestyle of their hosts. Lepidophthirus macrorhini, the Southern elephant seal louse species, faces the additional challenge of surviving attached to the host during the moulting period. Since lice live on the skin, L. macrorhini has developed a unique survival strategy by piercing the skin of their host, thus keeping them protected from moulting. During fieldwork in Patagonia and Antarctica, skin samples with lice within were collected for histological analysis to assess whether these parasites caused damage to the host. Lice generate an inflammatory process in the host's dermis, and these lesions could alter the normal chemical and mechanical protective properties of the skin facilitating secondary infections. Further studies that analyse the potential pathogens in those skin lesions are necessary to properly assess the real impact of ectoparasites on their host health.

Genetic Approach on Sanionia uncinata (Hedw.) Loeske to Evaluate Representativeness of in situ Conservation Areas Among Protected and Neighboring Free Access Areas in Maritime Antarctica and Southern Patagonia

The Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs) are zones with restricted access to protect outstanding environmental, scientific, historic, aesthetic, or wilderness values adopted inside the Antarctic Treaty System. Meanwhile, in southern Patagonia, conservation initiatives are implemented by the state of Chile and private entities. However, both are considered unrepresentative. Our work evaluates the representativeness of the in situ conservation through a genetic approach of the moss Sanionia uncinata (Hedw.) Loeske among protected and neighboring free access areas in Maritime Antarctica and southern Patagonia. We discuss observed presence with both current and reconstructed past potential niche distributions (11 and 6 ka BP) in the Fildes Peninsula on King George Island. Results showed occurrence of several spatially genetic subpopulations distributed inside and among ASPA and free access sites. Some free access sites showed a higher amount of polymorphism compared with ASPA, having ancestry in populations developed in those places since 6 ka BP. The different spatial and temporal hierarchies in the analysis suggest that places for conservation of this species in Maritime Antarctica are not well-represented, and that some free access areas should be considered. This work represents a powerful multidisciplinary approach and a great challenge for decision-makers to improve the management plans and the sustainable development in Antarctica.

Acute bottlenecks to the survival of juvenile Pygoscelis penguins occur immediately after fledging

Estimating when and where survival bottlenecks occur in free-ranging marine predators is critical for effective demographic monitoring and spatial planning. This is particularly relevant to juvenile stages of long-lived species for which direct observations of death are typically not possible. We used satellite telemetry data from fledgling Adélie, chinstrap and gentoo penguins near the Antarctic Peninsula to estimate the spatio-temporal scale of a bottleneck after fledging. Fledglings were tracked up to 106 days over distances of up to 2140 km. Cumulative losses of tags increased to 73% within 16 days of deployment, followed by an order-of-magnitude reduction in loss rates thereafter. The timing and location of tag losses were consistent with at-sea observations of penguin carcasses and bioenergetics simulations of mass loss to thresholds associated with low recruitment probability. A bootstrapping procedure is used to assess tag loss owing to death versus other factors. Results suggest insensitivity in the timing of the bottleneck and quantify plausible ranges of mortality rates within the bottleneck. The weight of evidence indicates that a survival bottleneck for fledgling penguins is acute, attributable to predation and starvation, and may account for at least 33% of juvenile mortality.