UD doctoral student Megan Cimino will discuss Antarctic penguins in the opening talk of the annual Ocean Currents Lecture Series.

Ocean Currents Lecture Series

Antarctic penguins focus of first installment in 2015 Ocean Currents Lecture Series

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1:20 p.m., May 14, 2015--Those who have wondered what it’s like to live in Antarctica won’t want to miss the opening lecture in the University of Delaware School of Marine Science and Policy’s 2015 Ocean Currents Lecture Series scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, May 21. 

Megan Cimino, a doctoral candidate in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, recently spent three months researching Adélie penguins at the Palmer Station research base on the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). 

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Cimino will discuss her experience living on the world’s least populated continent and her varied research with one of Antarctica’s top predators.

The presentation will take place in Room 104 of the Cannon Laboratory at UD’s Hugh R. Sharp Campus, located at 700 Pilottown Road in Lewes. 

The lecture series is free and open to the public, and seating is available on a first come, first served basis. This lecture is appropriate for all age groups, including K-12 audiences.

The WAP is one of the most rapidly warming areas on Earth, and changes in climate are affecting the Adélie penguin populations.

In 2013, Cimino and Matthew Oliver, associate professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy (SMSP), published results connecting climate change to shifting trends in penguin populations. 

Cimino and Oliver used ecological modeling and satellite data to determine how penguin breeding habitats have changed over the last 30 years. They found that habitat changes correspond to Adélie penguin population declines in the northernmost areas of the continent and population increases in the southernmost areas.

Then in 2014, Cimino and Oliver investigated whether changes in weather conditions influence chick weight. Through field observation and historical analysis, they found that westerly winds, precipitation and air temperature could cause a 7-ounce fluctuation in average chick weight. 

Penguin chicks don’t have waterproof feathers, so in wetter and colder weather, they have to expend more energy to keep warm and may suffer detrimental weight loss. A 7-ounce change in weight could determine whether or not a chick survives.

On their most recent trip to Palmer Station, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, Cimino and Oliver continued work with researchers from around the country on Project CONVERGE, which aims to understand how ocean processes affect penguin foraging ecology. 

The team used autonomous underwater robots (AUV) called gliders to measure ocean properties in areas where penguins forage for food. The researchers tagged and released adult penguins, and used the tags to track penguin movement including diving location and depth.

This was the second time Cimino and Oliver used AUVs to study the species; in 2011, along with SMSP director Mark Moline, they used a REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle to study penguin dive locations and concentrations of krill, the penguins’ main food source.

Additional Ocean Currents Lectures scheduled for this summer include:

June: Matt Breece, on sturgeon research.

July: Mark Moline, BentProp Project. Moline will discuss his use of underwater robotics technology to help locate missing World War II aircraft in Palau.

August: Chris Petrone and Adam Wickline, “Catching the Drift with Zooplankton.” This is a kid-friendly activity by Petrone, to be followed by an adult presentation by Wickline.

Visit the CEOE events page for updates on dates and times.

Article by Caren Fitzgerald

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