Full Record - Chinstrap penguin nesting density on Zavodovski Island, South Sandwich Islands, January 2011

Chinstrap penguin nesting density on Zavodovski Island, South Sandwich Islands, January 2011

GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02263

Abstract:
These data represent the nesting densities of chinstrap penguins on Zavodovski Island, South Sandwich Islands 10-13 January 2011. Counts of the number of nesting birds were made within 49 sub-colonies. They were collected to allow extrapolation of nesting density to the total area occupied by chinstrap penguins on the island, as estimated from digitisation of satellite imagery. The data were collected by a team lead by Heather Lynch from Stonybrook University, USA.

The work was funded by the Tinker Foundation and the Jeniam Foundation for financial support contributing to the expedition, and HL would like to acknowledge the US National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs and Geography and Spatial Sciences (Award Nos. 07-39515 and 12-55058) for financial support of the data analysis.

Citation:
Ratcliffe, N., Lynch, H., Black, A., White, R., & Hart, T. (2026). Chinstrap penguin nesting density on Zavodovski Island, South Sandwich Islands, January 2011 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/96febb5d-1821-4f49-9b5f-32e489ae3839

Access Data

GET DATA:

http://ramadda.data.bas.ac.uk/repository/entry/show?entryid=96febb5d-1821-4f49-9b5f-32e489ae3839

License

Access:	None
Use:	This data is governed by the NERC data policy http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/ and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/.

Authors

Name	UK Polar Data Centre
Role(s)	Metadata Author
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Name	Dr Norman Ratcliffe
Role(s)	Investigator, Technical Contact
Organisation	British Antarctic Survey

Name	Dr Heather Lynch
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	Stony Brook University

Name	Andy Black
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Name	Richard White
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	Oceanites

Name	Dr Tom Hart
Role(s)	Investigator
Organisation	Oxford Brookes University

Basic Information

Creation Date:	2026-08-17
Dataset Progress:	Complete
Dataset Language:	English
ISO Topic Categories:	Biota
Parameters:	Biosphere > Ecological Dynamics > Population Dynamics Biosphere > Terrestrial Ecosystems > Islands Oceans > Marine Biology > Marine Birds Spectral/Engineering > Visible Wavelengths > Visible Imagery

Additional Information

Reference:	Associated publications: Ratcliffe et al. 2026. Population declines and changes in community composition at the world's largest penguin colony. Current Biology. In press. Lynch, H.J., White, R., Naveen, R., Black, A., Meixler, M.S. and Fagan, W.F., 2016. In stark contrast to widespread declines along the Scotia Arc, a survey of the South Sandwich Islands finds a robust seabird community. Polar Biology, 39(9), pp.1615-1625. https://doi.org/10.7282/T3N58PHR Reference materials: Croxall JP, Kirkwood ED (1979) The distribution of penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula and islands of the Scotia Sea. British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge
Quality:	The quality of the counts were scored as N1, which equates to an accuracy of within 5%, based on a standard ordinal score used in penguin censuses (Croxall et al., 1979).
Lineage/Methodology:	Zavodovski Island was visited between 10th and 13th of January by a team of biologists led by Heather Lynch and supported by the yacht "Golden Fleece". Daily landings were made by inflatable boat on the south coast near Fume Point. Counts of apparently occupied nests (defined as a bird at a nest scrape in an incubating or brooding posture) were made by standing at the edge of the colony scanning systematically while recording nests on a tally counter. The areas of the colony were digitised from a WorldView-2 satellite image of the island taken on 8th January 2011. Densities were calculated as number of occupied nests divided by sub-colony area.

ASSOCIATED DATA SET(S):

PROJECT HOME PAGE:

https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/zavodovski-expedition/

REFERENCE MATERIALS:

Extent

Temporal Coverage:
Start Date	2011-01-08
End Date	2011-01-13

Spatial Coverage:
Latitude
Southernmost	-56.321
Northernmost	-56.277
Longitude
Westernmost	-27.615
Easternmost	-27.539
Altitude
Min Altitude	N/A
Max Altitude	N/A
Depth
Min Depth	N/A
Max Depth	N/A

Location:
Location	South Sandwich Islands
Detailed Location	Zavodovski Island

Instrumentation

Source(s):	SATELLITES
Data Collection:	Digitised colony boundaries used to calculate area can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/7220dc6b-2f52-4160-a6c0-e57c50963308, in the directory satellite-derived_data/mac_and_chinstrap_colony_boundaries_2011.shp. The original satellite image is the property of Vantor, so users seeking to acquire this will need to purchase the image directly from this company.

Discovery Metadata System

BAS Discovery Metadata System