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
Southwell, C. and Emmerson, L. (2025) Mapping knowledge of seabird breeding occupancy across East Antarctica, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.26179/5n29-r073, Accessed: 2026-07-28
Title
Mapping knowledge of seabird breeding occupancy across East Antarctica
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.26179/5n29-r073
Created Date
2024-08-19
Revision Date
2025-05-06
Expected Date of Data Release
2025-05-06
Data Version
1
Parent record
None

Description

The dataset contains occupancy observations of breeding distribution for eight seabird species (Adelie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae, Antarctic petrel Thalassoica antarctica, cape petrel Daption capense, southern fulmar Fulmarus glacialoides, southern giant petrel Macronectes giganteus, south polar skua Stercorarius maccormicki, snow petrel Pagodroma nivea, and Wilson’s storm petrel Oceanites oceanicus) across East Antarctica from 1910 to 2020. Each record in the dataset represents a known or inferred search effort for a specific species at a specific geographic site in a specific breeding season, with information on whether a species was directly reported as present, absent, or no direct statement about presence-absence at the site was made (occupancy non-reporting). A published spatial reference system (Southwell et al. 2021) was used to accurately and consistently geo-reference search effort and occupancy observations. The basic spatial unit for this system is a geographic site of ice-free land (a discrete island or continental rock outcrop surrounded by ocean or glacial ice). Occupancy observations were sourced by searching the primary literature, secondary literature, the AADC, drawing from the seabird research community’s knowledge of published and unpublished records, and leveraging the community’s practical experience in the region. Decision criteria were established to infer presence and absence certainty, and identify sites where there was no knowledge of presence or absence. These inferences drawn from the criteria were validated where possible by the researchers who collected the data. The compilation was used to investigate questions of pattern, bias and certainty in seabird breeding distribution. Further details on the methods and analysis are in the published paper.

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Access

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

Temporal Coverages

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

Additional Keywords

  • ADELIE PENGUIN
  • ANTARCTIC PETREL
  • CAPE PETREL
  • SOUTHERN FULMAR
  • SOUTH POLAR SKUA
  • SNOW PETREL
  • SOUTHERN GIANT PETREL
  • WILSON’S STORM PETREL
  • BREEDING DISTRIBUTION

Locations

  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA
  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Platforms

  • Publications

Instruments

  • Computer

Researchers

  • southwell, colin (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)
  • emmerson, louise (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT)

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_4518_Seabird_Breeding_Occupancy when using these data.

Project

    ISO Topic

    • BIOTA
    • OCEANS

    Dataset Language

    • English

    Orignating Centre

    • Australian Antarctic Division

    Dataset Progress

    • COMPLETE

    IDN Node

    • AMD/AU
    • AMD
    • CEOS

    Publications

    • Southwell et al. (2024) Knowns, unknowns and evidence of absence: mapping seabird biodiversity distribution from a century of observations to inform environmental monitoring and management in Antarctica., Diversity and Distributions
    • Southwell, C., Smith, D.T., Bender, A. and Emmerson, L. (2021) A spatial reference and identification system for coastal ice-free land in East Antarctica., 57, e30(1-2), doi.org/10.1017/S0032247421000280

    Metadata Revision History

      2024-08-19 - record created by Dave Connell from a template completed by Colin Southwell. 2025-01-15 - record updated by Dave Connell after a corrected project URL was provided by Lewis Rockliffe. 2025-05-06 - record updated by Colin Southwell to publicly release the data.

    Creative Commons License