Geography Available Research Project

The geomorphological influence of Adélie penguins

Project overview

Despite being an icon of Antarctica, Adélie penguins are challenging to research because of the challenges in visiting their remote colonies. To meet this challenge, remotely-sensed data can be used to provide an insight into their behaviour. These data suggest that the penguins can modify their colony habitats significantly over time, moving rocks and pebbles to create their nesting sites and generating significant and unique geomorphological features that can be viewed from space. The aim of this project is to identify and quantify the patterns of geomorphological modification generated by penguins around Antarctica and to investigate why and how these features are generated. An example of the behaviour and impact of the penguins can be seen in a series of evenly-spaced cone-like features at Stranger Point in Antarctica (see images below) that have been constructed by Adélie penguins as they move pebbles from the beach. The regularity and beach-parallel orientation is striking but the reasons for the organisation of the features are not clear. The relationship to the evolving shoreline may be possible given the multiple raised beaches visible at this and potentially at other sites (Che-Castaldo et al., 2023) and potentially to population and occupation histories (e.g. Gao et al., 2022). This project will use GIS, remote sensing and geomorphological analysis from the Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA: Howat et al.,2022) to map features and to identify features at other Adélie colonies. Skills in GIS and remote sensing are therefore essential.

If you are interested in this project, please contact the project supervisors:

Prof. Mike Bentley (Durham) m.j.bentley@durham.ac.uk 

Prof. Stewart Jamieson (Durham) stewart.jamieson@durham.ac.uk

Dr. Peter Fretwell (British Antarctic Survey) ptf@bas.ac.uk

Key references

Che-Castaldo C, Humphries G, Lynch H (2023) Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project: Database of abundance and distribution for the Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, emperor, macaroni and king penguin south of 60 S. Biodiversity Data Journal 11: e101476. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.11.e101476

Yuesong Gao, Maria Cristina Salvatore, Qibin Xu, Lianjiao Yang, Liguang Sun, Zhouqing Xie, Carlo Baroni (2022). The occupation history of the longest-dwelling Adélie penguin colony reflects Holocene climatic and environmental changes in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Quaternary Science Reviews, Volume 284, 2022, 107494, ISSN 0277-3791, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107494

Howat, Ian, et al., 2022. The Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica – Mosaics, Version 2 https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EBW8UC

Topographic (left) and photographic (right) evidence of  evenly-spaced cone-like features at Stranger Point, Antarctica that have been constructed by Adélie penguins as they move pebbles from the beach.

Be social. Be informed. Be a part of Durham Geography.