All scientific data collected by the Australian Antarctic program (AAp) are eventually described in the Catalogue of Australian Antarctic and Subantarctic Metadata (CAASM). CAASM can be used to search through AAp data descriptions, and it also provides links to access publicly available datasets, which can either be immediately downloaded or obtained from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC).

Citation
McInnes, J., Emmerson, L., Southwell, C. and Jarman, S. (2016) Diet results from Adélie penguins at Béchervaise Island and Whitney Point, 2012-2013, Ver. 2, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.4225/15/5514A9C54A8EC, Accessed: 2026-06-08
Title
Diet results from Adélie penguins at Béchervaise Island and Whitney Point, 2012-2013
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.4225/15/5514A9C54A8EC
Created Date
2015-03-26
Revision Date
2025-09-25
Expected Date of Data Release
2016-01-15
Data Version
2
Parent record
None

Description

These spreadsheets provide the proportions of prey DNA sequences in the scats of Adélie penguins at Béchervaise Island and Whitney Point in East Antarctica.

Samples were collected during two stages of the breeding season: mid brood guard (Béchervaise Island-January 4-6th 2013, Whitney Point 23- 28th December 2012) and mid creche (23-26th January 2013). Scat samples were collected from breeding birds, chicks and non-breeders at Béchervaise Island and breeding birds and chicks at Whitney Point. 'Breeders' were identified as individuals brooding or provisioning a chick, whereas 'non-breeders' were usually pairs that had reoccupied the colony and were building new practice nests with no chick present. Non-breeders in the colony include immature birds that have not yet bred and mature birds of breeding age that did not breed in a particular season (e.g. no partner or insufficient body condition)

DNA from each sample was extracted and sequenced as per the protocols in the following paper:
Jarman, S.N., McInnes, J.C., Faux, C., Polanowski, A.M., Marthick, J., Deagle, B.E., Southwell, C. and Emmerson, L. 2013 Adélie penguin population diet monitoring by analysis of food DNA in scats. PLoS One 8, e82227. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082227).

The Raw Data spreadsheet contains the proportion of each prey group of each individual sample, plus the total sequence count of prey items. Only samples with greater than 100 prey sequences are included in the dataset. The summary datasheet contains only prey taxa which contained greater than 2% of the proportion of sequences.

Analysis of these data have been published in: McInnes JC, Emmerson L, Southwell C, Faux C, Jarman SN. (2016) Simultaneous DNA-based diet analysis of breeding, non-breeding and chick Adélie Penguins http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150443

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Quality

2018-09-24 - The original datasheet was reformatted to fit OBIS/GBFI/IPT Biodiversity.AQ standardS. The new datasheet 'AdeliePenguinDiet2012_2013.csv" provides datasetID, recordNumber, resourceID, relatedResourceID, relationshipOfResource, relationshipAccordingTo, eventRemarks, eventDate, year, month, day, locality, locationID, verbatimLatitude, verbatimLongitude, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, continent, countryCode, preparation, identificationQualifier, occurrenceStatus, organismQuantity, organismQuantityType, basisOfRecord, behaviour, and institutionCode. The lowest taxonomical rank of the species identified that could be determined is provided, after matched in WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species).

Access

These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Temporal Coverages

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

Additional Keywords

  • Prey
  • Adelie Penguins
  • DNA
  • 4088

Locations

  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
  • OCEAN > SOUTHERN OCEAN
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Platforms

  • FIELD INVESTIGATION
  • FIELD SURVEYS
  • LABORATORY

Instruments

  • Automated DNA Sequencer

Researchers

  • mcinnes, julie (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
  • emmerson, louise (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
  • southwell, colin (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)
  • jarman, simon (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)
  • connell, dave (DIF AUTHOR)

Use Constraints

This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4088_Adelie_Diet when using these data.

Project

    ISO Topic

    • BIOTA
    • OCEANS

    Dataset Language

    • English

    Orignating Centre

    • Australian Antarctic Division

    Dataset Progress

    • COMPLETE

    IDN Node

    • AMD
    • AMD/AU
    • CEOS

    Publications

    • McInnes JC, Emmerson L, Southwell C, Faux C, Jarman SN. (2016) Simultaneous DNA-based diet analysis of breeding, non-breeding and chick Adélie Penguins, Royal Society Open Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150443

    Metadata Revision History

      2015-03-27 - record created by Dave Connell from a template completed by Julie McInnes. 2016-03-08 - record updated by Dave Connell to note that the data are now publicly available. 2016-09-28 - record updated by Dave Connell at the request of Julie McInnes, to correct a reference. 2018-09-24 - record updated by Dave Connell after a reformatted dataset was provided by Daniela Farias for GBIF/OBIS compliance. 2025-09-25 - record updated by Dave Connell - basic updates.

    Creative Commons License