TY  - STD
AU  - Frédéric Angelier, Timothée Poupart
PY  - 2017//
TI  - What is the impact of human disturbance on the stress response of Adélie penguins breeding in Antarctica?
N2  - <p>One of the thematic set of questions of the SCAR first Horizon Scan deals with the impact of human presence on the Antarctic environment and wildlife. Questions 74 (How can natural and human-induced environmental changes be distinguished, and how will this knowledge affect Antarctic governance?) and 75 (What will be the impacts of large-scale, direct human modification of the Antarctic environment?) represent pressing issues that still lack scientific data to be addressed, despite investigations conducted in the Peninsula region where human presence is more acute than elsewhere. In addition, impact studies on wildlife, especially upper vertebrates, are often confined to observational studies, possibly masking underlying physiological responses of wildlife to human exposure. In this context, our study aimed at examining the physiological response of Adélie penguins (<em>Pygoscelis adeliae</em>) from Terre Adélie, East Antarctica, to various degrees of long-term human exposure using a standardized stress protocol. When exposed to stressors, a hormonal stress response is indeed activated to shift energy investment away from reproduction and/or growth and to redirect it towards immediate survival. In vertebrates, this stress response is achieved through a release of glucocorticoids hormones (corticosterone in birds). One of the most common method to measure such a hormonal response, is to subject individual to a standardized capture/restraint/stress protocol. In our experiment, two sites with sustained and continuous human activity (on Petrels Island where the scientific base of Dumont d'Urville is installed since 1952) were opposed to two sites on neighbouring islands with little or no human activities (Island Lamarck and Bernard). Stress response experiments were conducted on fifteen adults per site from nests with equal value (2 eggs or 2 chicks per nests) several times during the reproductive season, on incubating females, incubating males, chick-rearing males and females. Around 15 large chicks were also tested per site. Within 0 to 3 minutes after capture, an initial blood sample was collected to measure baseline corticosterone levels. Birds were then restrained for ca. 15 minutes and a subsequent sample was collected to measure maximum stress-induced corticosterone levels. We expected birds from sites with little human impact to present greater elevation in corticosterone concentration following restraint. Although we do not want to spoil the results in this abstract we can tell that the story has a – probably counter-intuitive – happy-ending, bringing valuable information for the Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System to develop scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative on this hot topic.</p>
L1  - http://publi.ipev.fr/polar_references/files/yes
N1  - exported from refbase (http://publi.ipev.fr/polar_references/show.php?record=6871), last updated on Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0100
ID  - FredericAngelier2017
ER  -