Yan Ropert-Coudert

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CNRS & La Rochelle Université)

As human activities increasingly shape land- and seascapes, understanding human-wildlife interactions is imperative for preserving biodiversity. Habitats are impacted not only by static modifications, such as roads, buildings and other infrastructure, but also by the dynamic movement of people and their vehicles occurring over shorter time scales....

The COVID-19 pandemic and its lock-down measures have resulted in periods of reduced human activity, known as anthropause. While this period was expected to be favorable for the marine ecosystem, due to a probable reduction of pollution, shipping traffic, industrial activity and fishing pressure, negative counterparts such as the increased use of d...

The Southern Ocean is a productive and biodiverse region, but it is also threatened by anthropogenic pressures. Protecting the Southern Ocean should start with well-informed Marine Ecosystem Assessments of the Southern Ocean (MEASO) being performed, a process that will require biodiversity data. In this context, open geospatial biodiversity databas...

Introduction In Antarctica, there is growing concern about the potential effect of anthropogenic activities (i.e., tourism, research) on wildlife, especially since human activities are developing at an unprecedented rate. Although guidelines exist to mitigate negative impacts, fundamental data are currently lacking to reliably assess impacts. Physi...

In vertebrates, developmental conditions can have long-term effects on individual performance. It is increasingly recognized that oxidative stress could be one physiological mechanism connecting early-life experience to adult phenotype. Accordingly, markers of oxidative status could be useful for assessing the developmental constraints encountered...

There is great interest in measuring immune function in wild animals. Yet, field conditions often have methodological challenges related to handling stress, which can alter physiology. Despite general consensus that immune function is influenced by handling stress, previous studies have provided equivocal results. Furthermore, few studies have focu...

This Research Topic covers a broad taxonomic representation, spanning seabirds, cetaceans, sea turtles, pinnipeds, elasmobranchs, teleosts, a sirenian, the polar bear, and a large crustacean, the red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus). Articles submitted address how biologging is being used to understand the movement behaviour and distribution...

Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity faces multiple threats, from invasive species to climate change. Yet no large-scale assessments of threat management strategies exist. Applying a structured participatory approach, we demonstrate that existing conservation efforts are insufficient in a changing world, estimating that 65% (at best 37%, at worst 97%...

Environmental contamination is one of the major causes of biodiversity loss. Wetlands are particularly susceptible to contamination and species inhabiting these habitats are subjected to pollutants during sensitive phases of their development. In this study, tadpoles of a widespread amphibian, the spined toad (Bufo spinosus), were exposed to enviro...

Density-dependent prey depletion around breeding colonies has long been considered an important factor controlling the population dynamics of colonial animals.1, 2, 3, 4 Ashmole proposed that as seabird colony size increases, intraspecific competition leads to declines in reproductive success, as breeding adults must spend more time and energy to f...

Aim Climate change will likely lead to a significant redistribution of biodiversity in marine ecosystems. We examine the potential redistribution of a community of marine predators by comparing current and future habitat distribution projections. We examine relative changes among species, indicative of potential future community-level changes and c...

King penguins ( Aptenodytes patagonicus ) are an iconic Southern Ocean species, but the prey distributions that underpin their at-sea foraging tracks and diving behaviour remain unclear. We conducted simultaneous acoustic surveys off South Georgia and tracking of king penguins breeding ashore there in Austral summer 2017 to gain insight into habita...

In many bird species, reproductive partners sing together each time they meet on the nest. Because these nest ceremonies typically correspond to the return of one partner from foraging and to the subsequent departure of the other partner, we hypothesized that the foraging decisions of departing birds may be facilitated by the vocalizations accompan...

As extreme weather is expected to become more frequent with global climate change, it is crucial to evaluate the capacity of species to respond to short-term and unpredictable events. Here, we examined the effect of a strong storm event during the chick-rearing stage of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) from a mega colony in southern Australia. We...

Defining the impact of anthropogenic stressors on Antarctic wildlife is an active aim for investigators. Telomeres represent a promising molecular tool to investigate the fitness of wild populations, as their length may predict longevity and survival. We examined the relationship between telomere length and human exposure in Adélie penguin chicks (...

Metamorphosis is a widespread developmental process that involves considerable changes in morphology, habitat use, ecology and behaviour between early developmental (larval) stages and adult forms. Among amphibians, anuran larvae (tadpoles) undergo massive morphological and ecological changes during their development, with early stages characterize...

Seabirds allocate different amounts of energy to reproduction throughout the breeding season, depending on the trade-off between their own needs and those of their chicks and/or changes in environmental conditions. Provisioning parents therefore modulate their foraging behaviour and diet accordingly. However, for diving seabirds, many studies have...

Environmental change and biodiversity loss are but two of the complex challenges facing conservation practitioners and policy makers. Relevant and robust scientific knowledge is critical for providing decision-makers with the actionable evidence needed to inform conservation decisions. In the Anthropocene, science that leads to meaningful improveme...

Diving is an ecologically important behaviour that provides air-breathing predators with opportunities to capture prey, but that also increases their exposure to incidental mortality (bycatch) in commercial fisheries. In this study, we characterised the diving behaviour of 26 individuals of three species, the black-browed albatross Thalassarche mel...

There is a growing interest in studying consistency and site fidelity of individuals to assess, respectively, how individual behaviour shapes the population response to environmental changes, and to highlight the critical habitats needed by species. In Antarctica, the foraging activity of central place foragers like Adélie penguins ( Pygoscelis ade...

Energy drives behaviour and life history decisions, yet it can be hard to measure at fine scales in free-moving animals. Accelerometry has proven a powerful tool to estimate energy expenditure, but requires calibration in the wild. This can be difficult in some environments, or for particular behaviours, and validations have produced equivocal resu...

The massive number of seabirds (penguins and procellariiformes) and marine mammals (cetaceans and pinnipeds) – referred to here as top predators – is one of the most iconic components of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. They play an important role as highly mobile consumers, structuring and connecting pelagic marine food webs and are widely studie...

Individual heterogeneity in diet and foraging behaviour is common in wild animal populations, and can be a strong determinant of how populations respond to environmental changes. Within populations, variation in foraging behaviour and the occurrence of individual tactics in relation to resources distribution can help explain differences in individu...

Detecting changes in marine food webs is challenging, but top predators can provide information on lower trophic levels. However, many commonly measured predator responses can be decoupled from prey availability by plasticity in predator foraging effort. This can be overcome by directly measuring foraging effort and success and integrating these in...

Reduced human mobility during the pandemic will reveal critical aspects of our impact on animals, providing important guidance on how best to share space on this crowded planet.

1. Changes in marine ecosystems are easier to detect in upper-level predators, like seabirds, which integrate trophic interactions throughout the food web. 2. Here, we examined whether diving parameters and complexity in the temporal organisation of diving behaviour of little penguins (Eudyptula minor) are influenced by sea surface temperature (SS...

Applying physiological tools, knowledge and concepts to understand conservation problems (i.e. conservation physiology) has become commonplace and confers an ability to understand mechanistic processes, develop predictive models and identify cause-and-effect relationships. Conservation physiology is making contributions to conservation solutions; t...

Southern Ocean ecosystems are under pressure from resource exploitation and climate change1,2. Mitigation requires the identification and protection of Areas of Ecological Significance (AESs), which have so far not been determined at the ocean-basin scale. Here, using assemblage-level tracking of marine predators, we identify AESs for this globally...

There is a paucity of information on the foraging ecology, especially individual use of sea-ice features and icebergs, over the non-breeding season in many seabird species. Using geolocators and stable isotopes, we defined the movements, distribution and diet of adult Antarctic petrels Thalassoica antarctica from the largest known breeding colony,...

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for mul...

The Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data (RAATD) is a Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research project led jointly by the Expert Groups on Birds and Marine Mammals and Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics, and endorsed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. RAATD consolidated tracking data for mul...

• The most western little penguin colony globally, and the most northern in Western Australia (WA) is found on Penguin Island, WA. The penguins use coastal bays that are also used extensively by recreational watercraft. These penguins have been found to either dive predominantly to shallow depths of 1–5 m or to depths >8 m. It is thus hypothesized...

Plain Language Summary Polar ecosystems are threatened by future loss of sea ice. The availability of satellite sea ice products has facilitated a better assessment of the impact of sea ice on polar species. Yet most studies have focused on coarse spatial scale sea ice products hampering an understanding of the mechanisms by which sea ice affects s...

Spatiotemporal dynamics of ecosystems can challenge the pertinence of Marine Protected Area (MPA) planning. Seasonal environmental changes are extreme in polar regions, however MPA planning in East Antarctica relies mostly on species' summer distribution only. Thirteen Adélie penguins were tracked from Ile des Pétrels (Terre Adélie), and their seas...

Central place foragers rely on areas within a small range of their breeding grounds for chick provisioning. Therefore there exists a tight coupling between their breeding success and local bio-physical conditions. The effects of fine-scale variability in environmental parameters and resource distribution on the foraging behaviour of marine predator...

Southern Ocean ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to sea-ice changes occurring at different spatial and temporal scales. Variability in the sea-ice conditions strongly influence the survival and reproduction of animals that are synchronized with the seasonality of sea ice. Although the linkages between Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) and sea-...

Penguins face a wide range of threats. Most observed population changes have been negative and have happened over the last 60 years. Today, populations of 11 of the 18 penguin species are decreasing. Here we present a review that synthesizes details of threats faced by the world’s 18 species of penguins. We discuss alterations to their environment...

Aim Animal movement is an important determinant of individual survival, population dynamics and ecosystem structure and function. Nonetheless, it is still unclear how local movements are related to resource availability and the spatial arrangement of resources. Using resident bird species and migratory bird species outside the migratory period, we...

Central-place foraging in large seabird colonies leads to high levels of intra-specific competition for food resources, often resulting in between-colony spatial segregation. However, little is known about within-colony variation in foraging behaviour that may arise from breeding locations. Using little penguins Eudyptula minor from a large colony...

This webpage is a scientific database where you will find official records of dive depth and duration for most diving species of vertebrates. This project was initiated to answer the questions regularly asked by school teachers, educators, journalists, scientists: "How deep can animals dive?". Such information is compiled here, using references fro...

Under climate change, seabirds can provide a means to monitor rapid changes in the marine environment. An emerging approach uses fractal analysis to assess structural complexity in behavioural sequences, yet identifying how such complexity is affected by intrinsic and extrinsic parameters remains underexplored. Here, we examined how diving paramete...

In the d'Urville Sea in East Antarctica, a population of roughly 20,000 pairs of Adélie penguins of Iles des Pétrels (Terre Adélie) has experienced two massive breeding failures, with no chick surviving the 2013–14 and 2016–17 breeding seasons. In both seasons the extent of sea ice in front of the colony persisted throughout the breeding cycle of t...

The Southern Ocean is currently experiencing major environmental changes, including in sea‐ice cover. Such changes strongly influence ecosystem structure and functioning and affect the survival and reproduction of predators such as seabirds. These effects are likely mediated by reduced availability of food resources. As such, seabirds are reliable...

Due to ongoing climate change, it is necessary to understand how ecosystems and food webs are affected by these environmental changes. As upper-level predators, seabirds’ behaviour provides a way to monitor changes occurring in the marine environment, but identifying how the complexity in the temporal structure of behaviour depend on intrinsic and...

Due to ongoing climate change, it is necessary to understand how ecosystems will react and more particularly, how species may cope with the challenges of living in unstable systems. As top predator, seabirds' behaviour provides a way to monitor changes occurring in the marine environment, but identifying how the temporal structure and complexity of...

Due to ongoing climate change, it is necessary to understand how ecosystems will react and more particularly, how species may cope with the challenges of living in unstable systems. As top predator, seabirds' behaviour provides a way to monitor changes occurring in the marine environment, but identifying how the temporal structure and complexity of...

Jellyfish and other pelagic gelatinous organisms (“gelata”) are increasingly perceived as an important component of marine food webs but remain poorly understood. Their importance as prey in the oceans is extremely difficult to quantify due in part to methodological challenges in verifying predation on gelatinous structures. Miniaturized animal-bor...

The biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate variability of the Antarctic continent and the Southern Ocean are major components of the whole Earth system. Antarctic ecosystems are driven more strongly by the physical environment than many other marine and terrestrial ecosystems. As a consequence, to understand ecological functioning, cross-disc...

Little penguins (Eudyptula minor) have one of the widest geographic distributions among penguins, exposing them to variable ecological constraints across their range, which in turn can affect their foraging behaviour. Presumably, behavioural flexibility exists to allow animals to adapt to prevailing environmental conditions throughout their foragin...

Several biological functions, such as reproductive success, peak during middle age in long-lived vertebrates. One possible mechanism for that peak is improved foraging performance during middle age, after a period of youthful inexperience and before senescence. Age may be particularly important in relating foraging behaviour to fitness for diving a...

In polar seas, the seasonal melting of ice triggers the development of an open-water ecosystem characterized by short-lived algal blooms, the grazing and development of zooplankton, and the influx of avian and mammalian predators. Spatial heterogeneity in the timing of ice melt generates temporal variability in the development of these events acros...

Niche partitioning plays an important role in minimising interspecific competition for resources. Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic analysis of feathers, we investigated how macaroni Eudyptes chrysolophus and eastern rockhopper penguins E. chrysocome filholi breeding at the Prince Edward Islands partition the marine environment during the c...

In polar seas, the seasonal melting of ice triggers the development of an open-water ecosystem characterized by short-lived algal blooms, the grazing and development of zooplankton and the influx of avian and mammalian predators. Spatial heterogeneity in the timing of ice melt generates temporal variability in the development of these events across...

Commercial fisheries may impact marine ecosystems and affect populations of predators like seabirds. In the Southern Ocean, there is an extensive fishery for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba that is projected to increase further. Comparing distribution and prey selection of fishing operations versus predators is needed to predict fishery-related i...

Commercial fisheries may impact marine ecosystems and affect populations of predators like seabirds. In the Southern Ocean, there is an extensive fishery for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba that is projected to increase further. Comparing distribution and prey selection of fishing operations versus predators is needed to predict fishery-related i...

Summary of the literature review. (DOCX)

Distribution of the average size of Antarctic krill harvested by Antarctic predators. (DOCX)

Summary statistics for isotopic ratios of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) measured in Antarctic petrel body feathers. (DOCX)