Aquatic World of Penguins

​David Ainley has studied the upper trophic level dynamics of marine ecosystems for more than 40 years, and is a world-recognized expert on Adélie penguins. He has been on committees of the National Research Council to evaluate national environmental programs, was a member of the Marine Mammal Commission (Committee of Scientific Advisors) and state and international fisheries commissions, and has represented U.S. interests in various polar initiatives. Most recently, he initiated efforts that led to designation of the Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area within international waters of the Southern Ocean. In addition, he has served as program head for meetings of the Western Field Ornithologists, Pacific Climate Conference, Pacific Seabird Group, American Ornithologists’ Union, Cooper Ornithological Society, American Geophysical Union, and Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Seabird Group, and in 2022 was awarded the Ralph W. Schreiber Conservation Award by the American Ornithological Societies. He has been Editor-in-Chief of Marine Ornithology for the past 10 years.Rory Wilson is a professor in zoology within the department of biosciences at Swansea University, Wales, UK. He too, has been actively working with penguins for more than 40 years with understanding their marine ecology being his primary research thrust. His work involves developing and using new methods, particularly animal-attached tags, to study the behavioral ecology of enigmatic animals that are, otherwise, difficult to study. He has worked with ten penguin species but has also been involved in work in Africa, both Americas, Antarctica, Australia, the far- and middle East and Europe, with animals as diverse as albatrosses, armadillos, badgers, cheetahs, condors, sharks and sloths. He was bestowed a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2006 for his animal tag developments. He was chief scientific consultant for Nat Geo’s highly acclaimed 7-part series, ‘Great Migrations’, is listed in the top 50 conservationists in the BBC power list and is a Fellow of both the Learned Society of Wales and of Academia Europaea

• PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.- SECTION I – IN THE BEGINNING.- CHAPTER 1. WADING IN  ̶  INTRODUCTION TO THE FISH-BIRD.- General Discussion of Penguins and Substance of the Book.- An Impressive Number of Penguin Species: Evolution of Their Unique Capabilities.- Penguin Species Radiation and the Ontogeny of Their Watery World.- Penguin Evolution: Body Size and Climate.- Penguin Evolution: Radiation into Vacant Niches.- Penguin Evolution: Body Size and Crossing the Sea-Land Boundary.- CHAPTER 2. LAND AHOY! A TIRESOME BUSINESS.- Crossing the Land-Ocean Interface is Affected by Body Size.- Why and How Often do Penguins Come Ashore?.- Tying Land-life to the At-sea Life of Fish-Birds: Foraging and Breeding.- Success Vary with Prey Availability.- Molt ̶Necessary, Brief Respite from the Sea.- SECTION II – PENGUIN MARINE HAUNTS AND FOOD HABITS.- CHAPTER 3.FISH-BIRDS AT HOME IN THEIR OCEAN HABITATS.- Oceanographic Fronts and Water Masses Important to Penguins: General Discussion.- Penguins Require High Productivity Water Masses.- Large Scale: Oceanographic Boundaries and At-sea Distributions of Penguins.- Southern Boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.- Emperor and King penguins.- Adélie and Chinstrap penguins.- Antarctic Polar Front and Subantarctic Front.- Gentoo and Yellow-eyed penguins.- Macaroni and Royal penguins.- Northern and Southern Rockhopper, Fiordland, Snares penguins.- Subtropical Front and Continental Boundary Currents.- Galápagos, Humboldt, Magellanic, African penguins.- Little penguins.- Meso- and Small-Scale Ocean Processes Facilitating Penguin Exploits.- Island wakes.- Headland wakes.- Shelves and banks.- Submarine canyons.- Shelfbreak fronts.- Marginal ice zones.- Thermo-/haloclines.-  CHAPTER 4. SEA FOOD  ̶ THE FISH-BIRD MENU.- General Considerations.- Diet Quality: Survival in Cold Water.- Energy density of prey.- Prey size may or may not differ by penguin size.- Prey availability.- Diet Comparison among Penguin Species.- Polar/subpolar, mesopelagic penguins.- Subpolar, demersal/benthic, continental-shelf penguins.- Temperate, upper water column, continental-insular shelf penguins.- Polar, upper water column, continental shelf/slope penguins.- Subpolar, upper water column, continental slope/pelagic penguins.- Polar, upper water column, continental slope/pelagic penguins.-  CHAPTER 5. ECOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF DIET COMPOSITION.- Intraspecific Competition among Penguins.- Foraging Range is Key: General Discussion.- Penguin Species’ Central-Place Foraging Range Patterns.- Sex Differences in Foraging.- Interspecific Competition Involving Penguins.- Penguins Eat A lot!.- Competition between Penguin Species.- Competition between penguins and other seabirds.- Competition between penguins and marine mammals.- Competition between penguins and industrial fisheries.-  SECTION III – THE HARDWARE OF A FISH-BIRD.-  CHAPTER 6. THE SLIPPERY SHAPE,HOT AIR AND THE POWERHOUSE – HOW FISH-BIRDS SWIM.- Water – Hard Taskmaster.- The Four Forces Relevant to Penguins.- Vertical Forces – Weight and Upthrust.- Buoyancy: How Much Air Do Penguins Hold?.- Buoyancy and Bergmann’s Rule revisited.- Horizontal Forces: Drag.- The Interplay of Drag and Upthrust in Gliding Penguins.- The Drag Devil is in the Detail.-  The Penguin Powerhouse.-  How Penguins Swim.- The Effect of Upthrust and Body Angle on Penguin Thrust and Lift Forces.- Top Speeds; Power and Upthrust.- The Energy Costs of Swimming.- General considerations.- Specific considerations.- ’Sensible’ Swim Strategies and Costs of Transport.- Cruising speed and integrating speed with the cost of transport,.-  and beyond.- CHAPTER 7. HOT PENGUINS  ̶  COLD WATER.- Resting and Floating Penguins.- The Metabolic Rate of Floating Penguins.- Patterns of Heat Loss to the Sea.- Overall Body Insulation/Conductance.- The Nature of Penguin Insulation.- Active Penguins.- Activity Produces Heat.- Greater Depths Impose a Higher Heat Tax.- Consuming Prey Imposes a Heat Tax.- Embracing The Fish in the Fish-bird.-  CHAPTER 8. FISH-BIRDS – THE INSIDE STORY.- Diving Physiology.- Surface issues – Uptake of oxygen.- Oxygen Management Underwater.- Role of the Air Spaces.- Gas Exchange to Body Tissues.- The Aerobic Dive Limit and Beyond.- The Importance of Size in Dive Performance.- Duration.- Depth.- Penguins Under Pressure – Beating the Squeeze and the Bends.- Barotrauma.- Beating the Bends.- A Gut Reaction in Fish-Birds.- Gastric Emptying.- Rotting Food.- The Eyes Have It.-  SECTION IV – THE SOFTWARE OF FISH-BIRDS.-  CHAPTER 9. EMBRACING THE DEPTHS - THE PENGUIN DIVE.- Submergence.- The time underwater – basic dive descriptors.- Dive profiles.- Dive distance-depth profiles.- Dive aspect ratios.- Horizontal dive directionality/tortuosity.- The Multifunctionality of Dives.- Basic dive types.- T-dives for travelling.- V-dives (water column assessment).- P-dives (parabolic – prospecting with no prey capture).- Po-dives (parabolic dives with circular trajectory).- U-dives (depth-directed prospecting).- W-dives/Up-dives (U-dives with prey pursuit).- Depth Duration Effects Over Multiple Dives.-  CHAPTER 10. FISH-BIRD STRATEGIES  ̶  THE SEARCH FOR FICKLE PREY.- Decisions, Decisions, Decisions – How Fish-Birds Search for Prey.- Heading in the Right Direction.- Dealing with Prey Patchiness.- In-depth Considerations:.- Time-based efficiency.- Energy-based efficiency.- Superficial Considerations: Surface Pauses and Inspired Tactics.- Being Picky about Food.- Fish-Birds and Smart Strategies.-  CHAPTER 11. THE FINAL SECONDS – HOW FISH-BIRDS CAPTURE PREY.- Prey Acquisition, a Departure from the Dive ‘Norm’.- Performance Metrics for Prey Capture.- Catching Solitary Prey.- Changing buoyancy with depth affects prey capture strategies.- Prey pursuit against interfaces.- Exploiting Aggregated Prey.- Crustaceans.- Fish.- Non-corralling feeding behavior.- Clarity on Limitations of Penguin Vision.-  SECTION V – PENGUINS IN A FICKLE ENVIRONMENT.-  CHAPTER 12. TURNING THE TABLES – FISH-BIRDS ON THE MENU.- Basic Law of the Sea: Big Fish Eat Little Fish.- Seals as Predators.- Seals’ hunting behavior.- Penguins avoiding seals.- Fur Seals as Predators.- Sea Lions as Predators.- Killer Whales as Predators.- Sharks as Predators.-  CHAPTER 13. PENGUINS ADJUSTING TO A CHANGING OCEAN.- Penguins Have Always Been Challenged by a Changing Ocean.- Prehistoric response to a changing ocean.- Possible prehistoric changes to penguins’ food web.- The Anthropocene: How will Penguins Cope, Now Also Dealing with Humans?.- Response to long-term climate change.- Response to short-term ocean climate variation.- Response to marine pollution.-  CHAPTER 14. NOT FORGETTING  ̶ .- The Social Side - Behavior and Communication at Sea.- Penguin flock fusion/cohesion.- Penguin flock fission/fragmentation.- Navigation.- Long range.- Medium to short-range.- Understanding the Daily ‘Wash’.- Air flux in diving penguins, an aspect of ‘washing’.- Are Auks Really ‘Northern Penguins’?.- Research Tags – the Flip Side for Evolutionarily-Honed Fish-Birds.- SECTION VI.- CHAPTER 15. PENGUINS  ̶  WHY THE HYPE?.- Sources of Hype.- Us.- Many people.- Researchers.- The Transition.- The fascination of species.- Beyond the transition.- Role in Ecosystems.- Biomimicry.- Our Last Word.