BouvetøyaResearch and Monitoring at the most remote island in the world

Dr Andrew LowtherBiodiversity SectionNorwegian Polar Institute

Why bother ?

Cape Town

Troll Station

The most remote island on earth

Good place to get away from it all.

You need a helicopter to get on it

Or a few months of free time

Junction of three tectonic plates = earthquakes

Research station placed in Jan 2014

Prior to that - 2007

Cape Town – Antarctica in 6 hours

Cape Town – Bouvet in 6-9 days

Polar Front

Subantarctic Front

Ecosystem science programs at regional scales = high impact scientific output

What's there ?

Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella)

• Otariid seal (highly mobile)• Central place forager• One pup, weaned in 4mth• 60,000 (+/-) of them

How ?• Electronic tags (archival, transmitting)

Biological samples • Acoustic monitoring of krill availability• Regional measurements of biological

productivity over winter

Aims1. CEMP Monitoring (VHF transmitters)2. CEMP Pup growth rates3. adult diet studies4. dive studies5. multi-year tracking studies6. Disease, parasites, ecotoxicology7. Food availability (acoustics, oceanography)8. “Lagged” availability of food – biological

oceanography as a proxy (elephant seals)

~8,079 ± 300 pups alive at end of January

Capacity to estimate mortality rates

What about causes of mortality ? Cross-regional studies to identify common causes (disease, food

availability, climate)

Are indicators indicating what you want ?

~2,000 individuals on Nyrøysa

Myctophid and krill feeders

”Southern” end of their range

>50 individuals

Obligate krill feeders

“Northern” end of their range

Macaroni and Chinstrap penguins – instrumentation and sampling

Both range extremes – one doing well, one not so well – why ?

Utility for monitoring is relative to understanding what causes change

Early January to late February / early March

Overlap in breeding AND diet

Data collection:

1. CEMP monitoring of attendance rates (VHF tags)

2. CEMP diet studies (stomach lavage)

3. foraging overlap studies (vertical and horizontal) – 2007/08 representative ?

4. dietary studies (blood, feathers, eggshells – and HOW: accelerometry)

5. multi-year tracking studies – light geolocators

6. Biogeochemical analysis to determine diet over longer timescales

7. Region-scale molecular ecology – population trajectories, structure and adaptation

Multi-species studiesWhats on the other 98% of the islands’ coastline ?

Challenges - adaptive monitoring using modern methods

Arnaud et al. (2016). Temporal shift in the isotopic niche of female Antarctic fur seals from Bouvetøya. Polar Research

• Adopt new methodologies while maintaining integrity of historical time series.

• Provide science-based objective advice to CCAMLR that facilitate achieving a feedback management system.

Make sure it is GOOD science

Trophic collapses ?

Appropriate methods ?

Greatest krill abundance

Biuw, M. Nøst, Ø.A., Stien, A., Zhou, Q., Lydersen, C. and Kovacs, K.M. 2010.

Effects of hydrographic variability on the spatial, seasonal and diel diving patterns

of southern elephant seals in the eastern Weddell Sea. PLosOne 5(11): 114

(e13816).

Hofmeyr, G.J.G., Bester, M.N., Kirkman, S.P., Lydersen, C. and Kovacs, K.M. 2010.

Interspecific differences in the diet of Antarctic fur seals at Nyrøysa, Bouvetøya.

Polar Biology 33: 1171-1178.

Biuw, M., Lydersen, C., deBruyn, N., Arriola, A., Hofmeyr, G., Kritzinger, P., Kovacs,

K.M. 2010. Long-range migration of a chinstrap penguin from Bouvet Island to

Montagu Island (South Sandwich Islands). Antarctic Science 22(2): 157-162.

Biuw, M.E., Krafft, B.A., Hofmeyr, G., Lydersen, C. and Kovacs, K.M. 2009. Time

budgets and at-sea behaviour of lactating female Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus

gazella) at Bouvetøya. Marine Ecology Progress Series 385: 271-284.

Hofmeyr, G.J., Bester, M., Kirkman, S.P., Lydersen, C. and Kovacs, K.M. 2006.

Entanglement of Antarctic fur seals at Bouvetøya, Southern Ocean: bias in age and

sex class distribution, origin of materials, and changes in incidence. Marine

Pollution Bulletin 52: 1077-1080.

Hofmeyr, G.J.G., Krafft, B.A., Kirkman, S.P, Bester, M.N., Lydersen, C. and Kovacs,

K.M. 2005. Population changes of Antarctic fur seals at Nyrøysa, Bouvetøya.

Polar Biology 28: 725-731.

Hofmeyr, G.J.G., Bester, M.N. and Kirkman, S.P. 2005. Leucistic Antarctic fur seal at

Bouvetøya. Polar Biol. 29: 77-79.

Wynen, L.P., Goldsworthy, S.D., Guinet, C., Bester, M.N., Boyd, I.L., Gjertz, I.,

Hofmeyr, G.J.G. and White, R.W.G., Slade, R. 2000. Postsealing genetic variation

and population structure of two species of fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella and A.

tropicalis). Molec. Ecol. 9: 299-314.

Klages, N.T.W., Hofmeyr, G.J.G. and Gjertz, I.L.B. 1999. Prey of Antarctic fur seals

at Bouvetøya, Southern Ocean. Polar Rec. 35:. 255-257.

Tarroux, A., Lowther, A.D., Lydersen, C., Kovacs, K. Temporal shift in the isotopic

niche of female Antarctic fur seals from Bouvetøya. Polar Research (2016).

Lowther, A.D., Lydersen, C and Kovacs, K.M. "The seasonal evolution of shelf

water masses around Bouvetøya, a subantarctic island in the mid-Atlantic sector

of the Southern Ocean" Polar Research (2016).

Lowther, A. D., C. Lydersen, and K. M. Kovacs. "A sum greater than its parts:

merging multi‐predator tracking studies to increase ecological

understanding." Ecosphere 6, no. 12 (2015): 1-13.

Lowther, Andrew D., Heidi Ahonen, Greg Hofmeyr, W. Chris Oosthuizen, PJ Nico

De Bruyn, Christian Lydersen, and Kit M. Kovacs. "Reliability of VHF telemetry

data for measuring attendance patterns of marine predators: a comparison with

time depth recorder data." MEPS 538 (2015): 249-256.

Lowther, Andrew D., Christian Lydersen, Martin Biuw, PJ Nico de Bruyn, Greg JG

Hofmeyr, and Kit M. Kovacs. "Post-breeding at-sea movements of three central-

place foragers in relation to submesoscale fronts in the Southern Ocean around

Bouvetøya." Antarctic Science 26, no. 05 (2014): 533-544.

Blanchet, Marie-Anne, Christian Lydersen, Martin Biuw, PJ Nico de Bruyn, Greg

Hofmeyr, Bjørn A. Krafft, and Kit M. Kovacs. "Instrumentation and handling

effects on Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella)." Polar Research 33 (2014).

Blanchet, Marie-Anne, Martin Biuw, GJ Greg Hofmeyr, PJ Nico de Bruyn, Christian

Lydersen, and Kit M. Kovacs. "At-sea behaviour of three krill predators breeding

at Bouvetøya—Antarctic fur seals, macaroni penguins and chinstrap

penguins." Marine Ecology Progress Series 477 (2013): 285-302.

Tryland, M., Nymo, I.H., Nielsen, O., Nordøy, E.S., Kovacs, K.M., Krafft, B.A.,

Thoresen, S.I., Åsbakk, K., Osterrieder, K., Roth, S.J., Lydersen, C., Godfroid, J.,

and Blix, A.S. 2012. Serum chemistry and antibodies against pathogens in

Antarctic fur seals, Weddell seals, crabeater seals and Ross seals. Journal of

Wildlife Diseases – accepted Jan 2012.

Nøst, O.-A., Biuw, M., Tverberg, V., Lydersen, C., Zhou, Q., Hattermann, T.,

Smedsrud, L.-H., and Kovacs, K.M. 2011. Overturning of the slope front controls

glacial melting in the Eastern Weddell Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research 116,

C11014, doi:10.1029/2011JC006965.

Primary Publications from ecological research and monitoring on Bouvetøya

17 publications since 19998 in the last 2 years

4 visits to the island in 16 years

Now it is time to bring the worlds most remote island into a regional context

Questions ?

(Thanks for putting up with me again)