Variabilidade da cobertura de gelo marinho e as colônias de Pygoscelidae na costa oeste da baia do Almirantado, ilha Rei George, Antártica.

Esta dissertação examinou a influência das variações sazonais e interanuais da temperatura do ar em superfície da baia do Almirantado (BA) e da cobertura do gelo marinho (em diversas escalas de tempo e área geográfica), como fenômenos controladores da demografia das três espécies simpátricas de pinguins (Pygoscelis adeliae, P. antarctica e P. papua), que nidificaram na costa oeste da BA, ilha Rei George, Península Antártica, entre 1979 e 2004. Sete classes de variáveis (temperatura média do ar em superfície na BA, qualidade do gelo marinho na BA, Índice Oceânico Niño e as médias da área, anomalia da área, extensão e anomalia da extensão de gelo marinho) estruturaram sessenta e duas series históricas de variáveis independentes (VI). O Coeficiente de Determinação (r2 > 0,1) e a ANOVA (p 0.1) and ANOVA (p < 0.05 and < 0.1) determined the significance for the statistical model. The dependant variable for the model: number of breeding pairs, for each species was extracted from Hinke et al. (2007). Sea ice average area and its anomaly accounted for fourteen significant IVs (53%). The most represented ranges for the phenomena were fourteen IVs (53%) for the total of sea ice around Antarctica and eight IVs (31%) for the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas sector. The trimester August-September-October (ASO) offered eight IVs (p < 0.1). P. adeliae and P. papua sustained all the most significant IVs (p < 0.05). The Total IVs per species offered twelve for P. papua (46%), eight for P. adeliae (30%) and six for P. antarctica (23%). P. adeliae presented inversely proportional correlations with average area anomaly (p = 0.02); average area, average extension and average extension anomaly for the annual Total sea ice around Antarctica (p < 0.05). P. antarctica presented direct correlations with area and area anomaly of ASO sea ice averages for the Weddell Sea sector (p = 0.06). P. papua presented direct significant correlations with area and area anomaly (p = 0.02) and extension (p = 0.04) annual and ASO averages for sea ice in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas sector. These results agree with the current literature for the Antarctic Peninsula, that characterizes two distinct Southern Ocean ecosystems: the Western Coast (including the rich marine and coastal areas of Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas sector) and the East Coast, where the biological productivity is associated to sea ice extension and Weddell Sea and ice shelf sector. The marine areas of both are conditioned by the variability of the upper layer water mass mixture and the extremes of the solar radiation seasonal regime. The conclusion is that the winter period (closely associated to the availability of Antarctic krill) determines a control on the demographic histories of all three Pygoscelidae species, in Admiralty Bay. In turn, suggesting that these birds could be under a growing pressure in the South Shetland Island region, due to the limitation in krill availability, related to environmental change that has been observed in the Antarctic Peninsula. In Admiralty Bay, the decreasing numbers of P. adeliae and P. antartica show to be dependent on the annual and ASO averages of sea ice observed around Antarctica. Conversely, the increasing numbers of P. papua correlate with annual averages of sea ice variability observed in the Bellingshausen e Amundsen seas sector