A primary research objective of the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has been to identify and understand the factors that regulate the demography of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae). In this context, our work has been focused on variability in the marine environment on which this species depends for virtually all aspects of its life history (Ainley, 2002). As we show here, however, there are patterns evident in the population dynamics of Adélie penguins that are better explained by variability in breeding habitat quality rather than by variability in the marine system. Interactions between the geomorphology of the terrestrial environment that, in turn, affect patterns of snow deposition, drive breeding habitat quality.

Fraser, W.R., D.L. Patterson-Fraser, C.A. Ribic, O. Schofield, and H. Ducklow. 2013. A nonmarine source of variability in Adélie penguin demography. Oceanography 26(3):207–209, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.64.

Ainley, D.G. 2002. The Adélie Penguin, Bellwether of Climate Change. Columbia University Press, New York, 310 pp. 

Ducklow, H.W., W.R. Fraser, M.P. Meredith, S.E. Stammerjohn, S.C. Doney, D.G. Martinson, S.F. Sailley, O.M. Schofield, D.K. Steinberg, H.J. Venables, and C.D. Amsler. 2013. West Antarctic Peninsula: An ice-dependent coastal marine ecosystem in transition. Oceanography 26(3):190–203, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.62.

Emslie, S.D., W. Fraser, R.C. Smith, and W. Walker. 1998. Abandoned penguin colonies and environmental change in the Palmer Station area, Anvers Island, Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctic Science 10:257–268, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102098000352.

Fraser, W.R., and E.H. Hofmann. 2003. A predator’s perspective on causal links between climate change, physical forcing and ecosystem response. Marine Ecology Progress Series 265:1–15.

Fraser, W.R., and D.L. Patterson. 1997. Human disturbance and long-term changes in Adélie Penguin populations: A natural experiment at Palmer Station, Antarctic Peninsula. Pp. 445–452 in Antarctic Communities: Species, Structure and Survival. Proceedings of the VI SCAR Biology Symposium, B. Battaglia, J. Valencia, D.W.H. Walton, eds, Cambridge University Press.

Fraser, W.R., and W.Z. Trivelpiece. 1996. Factors controlling the distribution of seabirds: Winter-summer heterogeneity in the distribution of Adélie penguin populations. Pp. 257–272 in Foundations for Ecological Research West of the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctic Research Series, vol. 70, R.M. Ross, E.E. Hofmann, and L.B. Quetin, eds, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC.

Patterson, D.L., A.L. Easter-Pilcher, and W.R. Fraser. 2003. The effects of human activity and environmental variability on long-term changes in Adélie Penguin populations at Palmer Station, Antarctica. Pp 301–307 in Antarctic Biology in a Global Context. Proceedings of the VIII^th SCAR International Biology Symposium, A.H.L. Huiskes, W.W.C. Gieskes, J. Rozema, R.M.L. Schorno, S.M. van der Vies, and W.J. Wolff, eds, Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.

Oliver, M.J., M.A. Moline, I. Robbins, W. Fraser, D. Patterson, and O. Schofield. 2012. Letting penguins lead: Dynamic modeling of penguin locations guides autonomous robotic sampling. Oceanography 25(3):120–121, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2012.84.

Schofield, O., H. Ducklow, K. Bernard, S. Doney, D. Patterson-Fraser, K. Gorman, D. Martinson, M. Meredith, G. Saba, S. Stammerjohn, and others. 2013. Penguin biogeography along the West Antarctic Peninsula: Testing the Canyon Hypothesis with Palmer LTER observations. Oceanography 26(3):204–206, https://doi.org/​10.5670/oceanog.2013.63.

Trivelpiece, W.Z., J.T. Hinke, A.K. Millera, C.S. Reissa, S.G. Trivelpiece, and G.M. Watters. 2011. Variability in krill biomass links harvesting and climate warming to penguin population changes in Antarctica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108:7,625–7,628, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1016560108.

Turner, J., T. Lachlan-Cope, S. Colwell, and G.J. Marshall. 2005. A positive trend in western Antarctic Peninsula precipitation over the last 50 years reflecting regional and Antarctic-wide atmospheric circulation changes. Annals of Glaciology 41:85–91, https://doi.org/​10.3189/172756405781813177.

This is an open access article made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format as long as users cite the materials appropriately, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate the changes that were made to the original content. Images, animations, videos, or other third-party material used in articles are included in the Creative Commons license unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If the material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission directly from the license holder to reproduce the material.