Light-mantled Albatrosses on Macquarie Island; photograph by Jaimie Cleeland

Long-term data analysis reveals species-specific responses to climate change between Black-browed Thalassarche melanophris and Light-mantled Phoebetria palpebrata albatrosses in the southwest Pacific Ocean according to new research.

The paper, “Multi-decadal changes in the at-sea distribution and abundance of black-browed and light-mantled sooty albatrosses in the southwest Pacific Ocean” by Milan Sojitra (Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia) and colleagues, has been published open access in the journal ICES Journal of Marine Science.

Map of the study area. Red polygon represents the extent of the surveyed area over the study period. PF (Antarctic Polar Front), SAF (Subantarctic Front), and STF (Subtropical Front). Fronts are far more dynamic that these lines indicate. Here, they are shown as reference (mean representative). (Bathymetry data from ggOceanMapsData, Amante and Aakins, 2009, and Front data from Orsi and Harris, 2019).

The paper’s abstract follows:

“Many long-term studies have reported changes in seabird abundance and distribution in response to climate change and various anthropogenic activities. However, a greater understanding of how species are responding to change over large spatial and temporal scales are required—particularly at high latitudes such as the Southern Ocean. We examined black-browed Thalassarche melanophris (BBAL) and light-mantled sooty Phoebetria palpebrata albatross (LMSA) observations spanning over 50 years. Both species have a wide-ranging distribution in a rapidly changing Southern Ocean. We used generalized additive models (GAMs) to investigate environmental drivers of their abundance and occurrence. Our results show that climate indices, sea surface temperature and sea surface height are the main drivers influencing the distribution and abundance of both species. The abundance of BBAL southeast of Australia was observed to be decreased substantially whereas no significant change was observed in the abundance of LMSA. Both species demonstrated contrasting distributions along their latitudinal gradient with BBAL showing early stages of a southward range shift. Our analyses suggest that responses to climate change are species-specific. These rare, long-term data have provided an understanding of species’ responses to past changes in the marine environment and can provide critical information for future conservation and management.”

Reference:

Milan Sojitra, Eric J Woehler, Mary-Anne Lea, Simon Wotherspoon, Multi-decadal changes in the at-sea distribution and abundance of black-browed and light-mantled sooty albatrosses in the southwest Pacific Ocean, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 79, Issue 10, December 2022, Pages 2630–2642, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac197

19 Decemebr 2022

The accompanying infographic to the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment Decadal Synopsis (ACCE), illustrating key messages from the report

SCAR has collaborated with scientists across the globe to produce the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment Decadal Synopsis (ACCE). The report summarises a decade’s worth of research, providing a concise compiled synopses of current understanding, explicit recommendations for actions to address change, and recommendations for additional research.

An animation (see below) and a set of illustrated infographics highlighting key messages from the report have been produced to accompany the report. The set of infographics to accompany the report are available from here.

The full report is available to download from the SCAR library. 

The report’s summary as follows: 

“Scientific evidence is abundantly clear and convincing that due to the current trajectory of human-derived emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, the atmosphere and ocean will continue to warm, the ocean will continue to acidify, atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns will be altered, the cryosphere will continue to lose ice in all forms, and sea level will rise. 

While uncertainties remain about various aspects of the Earth System, what is known is beyond dispute. The trends, based on observations and confirmed by modelling, will accelerate if high rates of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions continue. 

The IPCC AR6 WGII Summary for Policymakers (SPM D.5.3) unambiguously emphasises this conclusion: The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all. 

Human influence on the climate is clear, with observed changes in the climate and in greenhouse gas concentrations unequivocally attributable to human activities. 

Human-induced climate change has caused extensive negative impacts, including losses to people and to nature, some of which are irreversible, such as the extinction of species. 

Climate change is increasingly exacerbating the impact of other human-caused effects on nature and human well-being, and the impacts are expected to grow with increasing climate change magnitude. 

Observations, modelling and global assessments describe significant changes in Antarctic physical and living systems, both marine and terrestrial. 

Changes in Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments are linked to and influence climate impact drivers globally. 

The most significant potential influence of Antarctica’s changes will be on global mean sea level change and its influence on society and nature in all coastal regions of the globe. 

Further global impacts influenced by Antarctic change include extreme climate and weather events, droughts, wildfires and floods, and ocean acidification. These impacts cause ecosystem disruption and loss of biodiversity beyond the Antarctic region. 

Under current projections, and without nations meeting the Nationally Determined Contributions of the Paris Climate Agreement, the rate of global change will outpace societal, political, and economic responses that will facilitate adaptation and strengthen resilience to the impacts of climate change. 

The agreements of the Antarctic Treaty System will not escape these influences. Rapidly changing Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments require similarly rapid environmental governance responses, including potential changes to agreements that have previously taken many years to reach. Impacts of climate change are also likely to challenge geopolitical relations in regions outside the Antarctic, in turn influencing relations within the Antarctic Treaty System. 

Past global arrangements and isolated responses have been ineffective in addressing cross-boundary challenges that require an Earth System approach. Research conducted in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean regions, and strong policies developed from its results, are critical for the development of an integrated Earth System approach and the discernment of a path to a sustainable future for the planet. 

Cooperative and coordinated international responses are required to address critical research needs in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. In turn, receptive Antarctic governance is needed to use the knowledge generated by the research to create effective policy and decisions. Enhanced investment in science will provide policymakers and planners with more comprehensive and coherent sets of information over time to help put in place timely, scalable adaptation and mitigation strategies. Investment in new science and technology that provides updated information on the likelihood of major drivers of climate risk will more than repay itself. 

Science communication and education in partnership with other cultural and societal actors is essential to enable further appreciation of the value of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean for current and future human well-being, for biodiversity, and for the interdependence of humans and nature.

To limit further change, immediate and deep emissions reductions are required across all sectors. 

Effective action is now more urgent than it has ever been. “

Reference: 

Chown, S.L., Leihy, R.I., Naish, T.R., Brooks, C.M., Convey, P., Henley, B.J., Mackintosh, A.N., Phillips, L.M., Kennicutt, M.C. II & Grant, S.M. (Eds.) (2022) Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment: A Decadal Synopsis and Recommendations for Action. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom. www.scar.org

Friday 16 December 2022

Fledgling Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, King Penguin Bay, Marion Island, 15 April 2005, photograph by Bruce Dyer

Five species of albatrosses breed in numbers on South Africa’s sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, with two more species recorded breeding as singletons.  Four species breed on both Marion and Prince Edward; they are the Wandering Diomedea exulans, Grey-headed Thalassarche chrysostoma, Sooty Phoebetria fusca and Light-mantled P. palpebrata.  The fifth, the Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross T. carteri, breeds only on the smaller Prince Edward Island, 22 km away from Marion.  Additionally, a single Black-browed Albatross T. melanophris has attempted breeding (with a Grey-headed Albatross partner) on Marion over a number of years (click here) and a “Shy-type” Albatross,  thought to be a White-capped T. steadi, was found incubating on Prince Edward in 2008; its partner unknown (click here).

Prince Edward Island is rarely visited but on Marion Island team researchers have studied seabirds year-round for many years, when sightings of non-breeding visitors, both seabirds and terrestrial birds, have been reported from time to time.  These vagrant records were summarized in a 2010 publication.  However, it explicitly stated that it did not consider records of globally Endangered Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses seen ashore on Marion Island.  Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses occasionally seen ashore on Marion over the years have generally gone unreported in the literature, although there is a published but undated  BxW photograph from 1965/66 (No. 76 by E.M. van Zinderen Bakker, Jr) of an adult "visiting Ship's Cove" on Marion Island.

The 1960s record, see details in text above

To fill this gap, we list here eight records made between 2005 and 2020 that have appeared in team newsletters or have been made directly to one of us.

Records of Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses ashore on Marion Island by month

15 April 2005 fledgling King Penguin Bay
  May 2014 King Penguin Bay
  August 2016 Bullard Beach
15 October 2007 adult Long Ridge between Sea Elephant and Blue Petrel Bays (click here)
05 November 2013 Sealer’s Beach
26 November 2018 Macaroni Bay
  December 2020 adult Grey-headed Albatross Ridge
18 December 2011 adult Archway Bay

The 2007 adult Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on Long Ridge, photograph by Chris Oosthuizen

According to the ACAP Species Assessment, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses arrive in colonies to commence breeding around the beginning of August and chicks fledge over April - May.  The lack of mid-winter records for Marion for June and July is thus not surprising.  Both the two records from April and May are likely to be of fledglings, whereas the others are all likely to be breeding adults that have “gone astray”.  All but one of the Marion records are from the east coast of the island that faces Prince Edward, the assumed source of all eight birds.  This, however, is to be expected as this coast is more regularly visited and surveyed than elsewhere.  The exception is the adult reported from Grey-headed Albatross Ridge on the island’s southward-facing coast in December 2020.  This locality is the main breeding site for Grey-headed Albatrosses, which we assume was a source of attraction for the vagrant.  If Indian Yellow-nosed Albatrosses are ever to breed on Marion Island, this is likely where it would take place, given that these two mollymawk albatrosses breed in mixed colonies on Prince Edward Island.

Left:  The vagrant Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross with its paler head is on the left.  On landing on Gough Island, it engaged in bill fencing with the Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross on the right, photograph by Christopher Jones
Right: The second record of an Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross on Gough Island; photograph by Vonica Perold

Much farther away than to 22-km gap between Marion and Prince Edward and well outside its breeding range a vagrant Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross was photographed ashore on Gough Island in the South Atlantic in January 2019, where it briefly interacted with a resident Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross T. chlororhynhchos (click here).  A second bird was seen and photographed on Gough in September 2021 (click here),  Both birds were adults (and possibly were the same individual as they were seen in the same vicinity).

References:

Jones, M.G.W., Techow, N.M.S., Risi, M.M., Jones, C.W., Hagens, Q.A., Taylor, F. & Ryan, P.G. 2019.  Hybridization and cuckoldry between black-browed and grey-headed albatrosses.  Antarctic Science 32-10-14.

Oosthuizen, W.C., Dyer, B.H. & de Bruyn, P.J.N. 2010.  Vagrant birds ashore at the Prince Edward Islands, southern Indian Ocean, from 1987 to 2009.  African Journal of Marine Science 31: 445-450.

Phillips, R.A., Cooper, J. & Burg, T.M. 2018.  Breeding‐site vagrancy and hybridization in albatross. Ibis 160: 907-913.

Ryan, P. [G.] 2009.  Sixth albatross species breeding on Prince Edward Island.  Africa - Birds & Birding 14(2): 14.

Ryan, P.G., Dilley, B.J., Risi, M.M., Jones, C.W., Osborne, A., Schofield, A., Repetto, J. & Ratcliffe, N. 2019.  Three new seabird species recorded at Tristan da Cunha archipelago. Seabird 32: 122-125.

Ryan, P.G., Jones, M.G.W., Dyer, B.M., Upfold, L. & Crawford, R.J.M. 2009.  Recent population estimates and trends in numbers of albatrosses and giant petrels breeding at the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands.  African Journal of Marine Science 31: 409-417.md jus

Van Zinderen Bakker Sr, E.M., Winterbottom, J.M. & Dyer, R.A. (Eds) 1971.  Marion and Prince Edward Islands. Report on the South African Biological and Geological Expedition / 1965-1966.  Cape Town: A.A. Balkema.  427 pp.

John Cooper, ACAP News Correspondent & Bruce Dyer, 15 December 2022

The inaugural Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Symposium, "Southern Ocean in a Changing World" will take place from 14 – 18 August 2023 in Hobart, Australia.

“The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the Earth System, and our understanding of the ongoing changes and our ability to project future changes are reliant on sustained observations. The SOOS has built a strong network of community-driven initiatives and tools that combine to enhance and facilitate the delivery of a sustained observing and data delivery system for the Southern Ocean”. 

 The Symposium will feature plenary presentations, parallel sessions and workshops incorporating a wide spectrum of Southern Ocean research under the Symposium’s theme, "Southern Ocean in a Changing World" and focused around the topics listed below:

• Circumpolar observations and programmes
• Regional observations and programmes
• Data systems
• New observing technology and systems in Southern Ocean observations

Find out more information on the Symposium’s topics and register for updates on the event at the SOOS Symposium website.

14 December 2022