Report of the scientific committee.

Advanced Planning Preparation Time: ~10 minutes 1. Review the instructions 2. Gather the necessary supplies. Lesson Summary Students will learn about the Polar Regions and find and classify images of different changing polar landscapes.

What are the polar regions

We present an update of the ‘key points’ from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2009. We summarise subsequent advances in knowledge concerning how the climates of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean have changed in the past, how they might change in the future, and examine the associated impacts on the marine and terrestrial biota. We also incorporate relevant material presented by SCAR to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and make use of emerging results that will form part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report

Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment: an Update.

Changes in dive profiles as an indicator of feeding success in king and Adelie penguins

Climate change and other human activities are causing profound effects on marine ecosystem productivity We show that the breeding success of seabirds is tracking hemispheric differences in ocean warming and human impacts, with the strongest effects on fish-eating, surface-foraging species in the north Hemispheric asymmetry suggests the need for ocean management at hemispheric scales For the north, tactical, climate-based recovery plans for forage fish resources are needed to recover seabird breeding productivity In the south, lower-magnitude change in seabird productivity presents opportunities for strategic management approaches such as large marine protected areas to sustain food webs and maintain predator productivity Global monitoring of seabird productivity enables the detection of ecosystem change in remote regions and contributes to our understanding of marine climate impacts on ecosystems

/pdf/hemispheric-asymmetry-in-ocean-change-and-the-productivity-3ubyhnmmn2.pdf

Hemispheric asymmetry in ocean change and the productivity of ecosystem sentinels

The massive number of seabirds (penguins and procellariiformes) and marine mammals (cetaceans and pinnipeds) - referred to here as top predators - is one of the most iconic components of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. They play an important role as highly mobile consumers, structuring and connecting pelagic marine food webs and are widely studied relative to other taxa. Many birds and mammals establish dense breeding colonies or use haul-out sites, making them relatively easy to study. Cetaceans, however, spend their lives at sea and thus aspects of their life cycle are more complicated to monitor and study. Nevertheless, they all feed at sea and their reproductive success depends on the food availability in the marine environment, hence they are considered useful indicators of the state of the marine resources. In general, top predators have large body sizes that allow for instrumentation with miniature data-recording or transmitting devices to monitor their activities at sea. Development of scientific techniques to study reproduction and foraging of top predators has led to substantial scientific literature on their population trends, key biological parameters, migratory patterns, foraging and feeding ecology, and linkages with atmospheric or oceanographic dynamics, for a number of species and regions. We briefly summarize the vast literature on Southern Ocean top predators, focusing on the most recent syntheses. We also provide an overview on the key current and emerging pressures faced by these animals as a result of both natural and human causes. We recognize the overarching impact that environmental changes driven by climate change have on the ecology of these species. We also evaluate direct and indirect interactions between marine predators and other factors such as disease, pollution, land disturbance and the increasing pressure from global fisheries in the Southern Ocean. Where possible we consider the data availability for assessing the status and trends for each of these components, their capacity for resilience or recovery, effectiveness of management responses, risk likelihood of key impacts and future outlook.

/pdf/marine-ecosystem-assessment-for-the-southern-ocean-birds-and-cm6qrvqsqq.pdf

Ana Olivia de A. Reis

Papers

Marine ecosystem assessment for the Southern Ocean : Birds and marine mammals in a changing climate