Islands of South Shetland Islands. name, geology, archipelago, Area, latitude, Length, waterbody, longitude, population, country

In 1972 the biologist, Dr.Victor Ariel Gallardo, recovered benthonic samples from the bottom of Admiralty and Chile Bay, in the South part of King George Island, for biological purposes. During his lab analysis, he found two different projectile points in separate plastic bottles. Archaeological studies of the artifacts and the place where they where discovered, proved that that these points where not originally from that place, but they were introduced by unknown people during the transportation or during its stay in the laboratory (Concepcion). During the field work, a survey was done in Admiralty Bay and on the North coast of King George Island, finding numerous historical sites, one of which "Cuatro Pircas", was excavated the following year.

This dataset contains in a zipfile the shapefiles for the seabird breeding colonies at Stinker Point (Elephant Island, Maritime Antarctic Peninsula), the elevation of Stinker Point and the Elephant Island contour. All shapefiles are projected in WGS 1984 World Mercator projected coordinate system.

Antarctic fur seals (AFS) are an ecologically important predator and a focal indicator species for ecosystem-based Antarctic fisheries management. This species suffered intensive anthropogenic exploitation until the early 1900s, but recolonized most of its former distribution, including the southern-most colony at Cape Shirreff, South Shetland Islands (SSI). The IUCN describes a single, global AFS population of least concern; however, extensive genetic analyses clearly identify four distinct breeding stocks, including one in the SSI. To update the population status of SSI AFS, we analyzed 20 years of field-based data including population counts, body size and condition, natality, recruitment, foraging behaviors, return rates, and pup mortality at the largest SSI colony. Our findings show a precipitous decline in AFS abundance (86% decrease since 2007), likely driven by leopard seal predation (increasing since 2001, p << 0.001) and potentially worsening summer foraging conditions. We estimated that leopard seals consumed an average of 69.3% (range: 50.3–80.9%) of all AFS pups born each year since 2010. AFS foraging-trip durations, an index of their foraging habitat quality, were consistent with decreasing krill and fish availability. Significant improvement in the age-specific over-winter body condition of AFS indicates that observed population declines are driven by processes local to the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The loss of SSI AFS would substantially reduce the genetic diversity of the species, and decrease its resilience to climate change. There is an urgent need to reevaluate the conservation status of Antarctic fur seals, particularly for the rapidly declining SSI population.

The South Shetland Antarctic fur seal pup census dataset is part of long-term monitoring efforts in the South Shetland Islands archipelago (SSI), based at Cape Shirreff, Livingston Island. These efforts, which include conducting annual synoptic census counts of South Shetland Antarctic fur seals (SSAFS) throughout the region, have been primarily carried out by the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) United States Antarctic Marine Living Resources Program (U.S. AMLR). These census data will continue to be collected by the U.S. AMLR program, and updated yearly. Recent studies have demonstrated Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) are composed of at least four distinct subpopulations (Bonin et al. 2013, Paijmans et al. 2020), including one breeding throughout the SSI. These SSAFS are the highest latitude population of otariids in the world. As such, this subpopulation faces a unique array of environmental and ecological challenges, harbors a disproportionately large reservoir of genetic diversity for the species, and has experienced catastrophic population decline between 2008 and 2023 (Krause et al. 2023 and references therein). Therefore, ensuring access to accurate and updated population data for SSAFS is particularly important for managers and decision makers. Due to regular absences by foraging females throughout the breeding season, and the irregular haul out patterns of males and subadults, the most informative measure of fur seal population size is to annually count pups (Payne, 1979; Bengtson et al., 1990). This dataset consists of all known total synoptic Antarctic fur seal pup counts (i.e., live and dead pups) from the SSI during the austral summers since 1959. Counts from the subset breeding colonies at Cape Shirreff (CS, reported with standard deviation (±SD) where available) and the San Telmo Islets (STI) are also included. Data were collected by the U.S. AMLR Program, unless otherwise indicated. Most of these annual census counts were conducted during the optimal biological window (late December and early January) when the vast majority of pups are born, but have not yet been subject to substantial mortality (Krause et al. 2022). The authors are confident that all counts included in this dataset are comparable and representative of South Shetland Antarctic fur seal population trends. However, census dates, or at least best estimates of the census date, are included for all records for any parties wishing to apply correction factors. The data are published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive, which contains count data for SSAFS pups from the specified locations during the specified seasons. This dataset is published under the license CC0. Please follow the guidelines from the SCAR Data Policy (SCAR, 2023) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via data-biodiversity-aq@naturalsciences.be. Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/us-amlr/ssafs-pup-census. This dataset is maintained by the U.S. Antarctic Marine Living Resources Program, funded by NOAA.

Islands of Aitcho Islands (South Shetland Islands). name, geology, archipelago, Area, latitude, Length, waterbody, longitude, population, country

The data set contains information about the ecology of the pygoscelidos penguins (Papua, adelie and antarctic). These data consist of a census of nesting groups, chick weight gain, and chick mortality due to predators, reproduction chronology, and spatial distribution of nesting groups and chick weight at the time of feathering. This information has been collected on the Ardley Peninsula, South Shetland Island. Data was also collected, on the Munita Peninsula, Paradise Bay.

In English:

This dataset contains information on:Some aspects of the breeding biology of the Chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica) were studied at the Vapour Col colony (20,000 breeding pairs) on the west side of Deception Island, South Shetland, during the austral summers of 1998/99. The study was located on the Spanish base Gabriel de Castilla. During the incubation phase we studied the function of stone carrying through experimentally manipulating the intensity of stone collection and the perceived risk of nest flooding. We took blood samples from whole families to estimate by the DNA-fingerprinting technique the proportion of extrapaternity in this population, and to test whether there exist differences in the frequency of extrapair-copulations between small and large subcolonies. We also collected blood samples from chicks at different ages to estimate sex-ratio at hatching and at fledging, and the possible effect of sex on juvenile mortality. We carried out a global study of cr?che formation performing an experiment to quantify de effect of predation on breeding success and chick aggregation. Finally we described and unknown sexual behaviour and discriminate the nature of the individuals that performed sexual displays to chicks.

En Espanol:

Este dataset contiene informacion sobre:Durante el verano antartico de 1998/99 estudiamos diferentes aspectos de la biologia reproductora del Pinguino Barbijo (Pygoscelis antarctica) en la colonia de Vapour Col en la Isla Decepcion, Islas Shetland del Sur.El trabajo se llevo a cabo desde la base antartica espanola Gabriel de Castilla. Durante la fase de incubacion realizamos un estudio sobre la funcion de la conducta de acarreo de piedras al nido, mediante un experimento en el que manipulamos artificialmente la intensidad de recoleccion de piedras y la percepcion del riesgo de inundacion del nido. Durante los primeros d?as de vida de los pollos procedimos a la recogida de muestras de sangre a familias completas, con el fin de estimar el porcentaje de extrapaternidad en esta poblacion mediante la t?cnica de DNA-Fingerprinting, asi como averiguar si existen diferencias en la tasa de copulas extrapareja entre subcolonias grandes y pequenas. Tambien extrajimos muestras de sangre a pollos poco despues de la eclosion para conocer la razon de sexos al nacimiento; y en la emancipacion y a la edad de un ano para explorar un posible efecto del sexo en la mortalidad juvenil. Durante toda la temporada reproductora mantuvimos protegidas de los depredadores algunas subcolonias en un experimento para averiguar el impacto de la depredacion sobre el exito reproductor, as? como sobre la formacion de guarderias. Finalmente estudiamos un comportamiento sexual no descrito en pinguinos en el que algunos adultos presentaron pautas sexuales con pollos e intentamos identificar el sexo y condicion de estos individuos.