• Energy Research

The Magellanic penguin breeds in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands. Nests are built under bushes or in burrows, and they lay eggs in warm places when the temperature remains over 20℃. Magellanic penguins travel in large flocks when hunting for food. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the Magellanic penguin as near threatened.We sequenced the genome of an adult Magellanic penguin from Chiloe Island, Chile (provided by Juan Bouzat) to a depth of approximately 171x with short reads from a series of libraries with various insert sizes (250bp-20Kb). The assembled scaffolds of high quality sequences total 1.2Gb, with the contig and scaffold N50 values of 40.48Kb and 12.09Mb respectively. We identified 16795 protein-coding genes.

This data set describes the population dynamics of Wilson's Storm Petrels (Oceanites oceanicus) at King George Island (Islas 25 de Mayo, Antarctica) over a forty year period (1978 - 2020). It includes all available data on Wilson's Storm Petrels from two colonies: around the Argentinian Base Carlini (62°14′S, 58°40′W; CA, formerly called Base Jubany) and the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station (62°09′S, 58°27′W; HA). Data on adult abundance and estimated age categories (i.e., presence of foot spots; Quillfeldt et al. (2000, doi:10.1007/s003000000167) were collected at CA by using the same size mistnet every study year in the same location within the breeding colony. Adults were ringed with a metal leg ring, and their foot webs were checked for foot spots. This study was further supported by the Erasmus+ programm and thee German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

The African penguin (also known as jackass penguin and black-footed penguin) is endemic to southern African coasts. The pink gland above the eyes helps to adjust to changing temperatures: when it's hotter, more blood is sent to these glands to be cooled by the surrounding air. It is a charismatic species and is popular with tourists. The African penguin has declined rapidly and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies it as endangered.We sequenced the genome of an adult African penguin from Luderitz, Namibia (provided by Kim Labuschagne) to a depth of approximately 115x with short reads from a series of libraries with various insert sizes (250bp-20Kb). The assembled scaffolds of high quality sequences total 1.23Gb, with the contig and scaffold N50 values of 99.03Kb and 14.67Mb respectively. We identified 16134 protein-coding genes.

Foraging efficiency determines whether animals will be able to raise healthy broods, maintain their own condition, avoid predators and ultimately increase their fitness. Using accelerometers and GPS loggers, features of the habitat and the way animals deal with variable conditions can be translated into energetic costs of movement, which, in turn, can be translated to energy landscapes.We investigated energy landscapes in Gentoo Penguins Pygoscelis papua from two colonies at New Island, Falkland/Malvinas Islands.In our study, the marine areas used by the penguins, parameters of dive depth and the proportion of pelagic and benthic dives varied both between years and colonies. As a consequence, the energy landscapes also varied between the years, and we discuss how this was related to differences in food availability, which were also reflected in differences in carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values and isotopic niche metrics. In the second year, the energy landscape was characterized by lower foraging costs per energy gain, and breeding success was also higher in this year. Additionally, an area around three South American Fur Seal Arctocephalus australis colonies was never used.These results confirm that energy landscapes vary in time and that the seabirds forage in areas of the energy landscapes that result in minimized energetic costs. Thus, our results support the view of energy landscapes and fear of predation as mechanisms underlying animal foraging behaviour. Furthermore, we show that energy landscapes are useful in linking energy gain and variable energy costs of foraging to breeding success.

Climate change affects timing of reproduction in many bird species, but few studies have investigated its influence on annual reproductive output. Here, we assess changes in the annual production of young by female breeders in 201 populations of 104 bird species (N = 745,962 clutches) covering all continents between 1970 and 2019. Overall, average offspring production has declined in recent decades, but considerable differences were found among species and populations. A total of 56.7% of populations showed a declining trend in offspring production (significant in 17.4%), whereas 43.3% exhibited an increase (significant in 10.4%). The results show that climatic changes affect offspring production through compounded effects on ecological and life history traits of species. Migratory and larger-bodied species experienced reduced offspring production with increasing temperatures during the chick-rearing period, whereas smaller-bodied, sedentary species tended to produce more offspring. Likewise, multi-brooded species showed increased breeding success with increasing temperatures, whereas rising temperatures were unrelated to reproductive success in single-brooded species. Our study suggests that rapid declines in size of bird populations reported by many studies from different parts of the world are driven only to a small degree by changes in the production of young.

Abstract Background Penguins (Sphenisciformes) are a remarkable order of flightless wing-propelled diving seabirds distributed widely across the southern hemisphere. They share a volant common ancestor with Procellariiformes close to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (66 million years ago) and subsequently lost the ability to fly but enhanced their diving capabilities. With ~20 species among 6 genera, penguins range from the tropical Galápagos Islands to the oceanic temperate forests of New Zealand, the rocky coastlines of the sub-Antarctic islands, and the sea ice around Antarctica. To inhabit such diverse and extreme environments, penguins evolved many physiological and morphological adaptations. However, they are also highly sensitive to climate change. Therefore, penguins provide an exciting target system for understanding the evolutionary processes of speciation, adaptation, and demography. Genomic data are an emerging resource for addressing questions about such processes. Results Here we present a novel dataset of 19 high-coverage genomes that, together with 2 previously published genomes, encompass all extant penguin species. We also present a well-supported phylogeny to clarify the relationships among penguins. In contrast to recent studies, our results demonstrate that the genus Aptenodytes is basal and sister to all other extant penguin genera, providing intriguing new insights into the adaptation of penguins to Antarctica. As such, our dataset provides a novel resource for understanding the evolutionary history of penguins as a clade, as well as the fine-scale relationships of individual penguin lineages. Against this background, we introduce a major consortium of international scientists dedicated to studying these genomes. Moreover, we highlight emerging issues regarding ensuring legal and respectful indigenous consultation, particularly for genomic data originating from New Zealand Taonga species. Conclusions We believe that our dataset and project will be important for understanding evolution, increasing cultural heritage and guiding the conservation of this iconic southern hemisphere species assemblage.

The Western rockhopper penguin (also known as the Southern rockhopper penguin or American Southern rockhopper penguin) is a small crested penguin. It is closely related to the Eastern rockhopper penguin, and there is still some debate about whether both are considered incipient species, sub-species or distinct species. Recent genetic work suggests they are probably separate species. The Western rockhopper penguin breeds on subantarctic islands of the western Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as around the southern coasts of South America. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the Southern rockhopper penguin group (including both the Western and the Eastern rockhopper penguin) as vulnerable.We sequenced the genome of an adult Western rockhopper penguin from Falkland Islands/Malvinas (provided by Dee Boersma) to a depth of approximately 162x with short reads from a series of libraries with various insert sizes (250bp-20Kb). The assembled scaffolds of high quality sequences total 1.26Gb, with the contig and scaffold N50 values of 64.46Kb and 1.86Mb respectively. We identified 16280 protein-coding genes.