Data from: Large-scale assessment of intra- and inter-annual breeding success using a remote camera network

Changes in the physical environment along the Antarctic Peninsula have
been among the most rapid anywhere on the planet. In concert with
environmental change, the potential for direct human disturbance resulting
from tourism, scientific programs, and commercial fisheries continues to
rise in the region. While seabirds, such as the gentoo penguin Pygoscelis
papua, are commonly used to assess the impact of these disturbances on
natural systems, research efforts are often hampered by limited spatial
coverage and lack of temporal resolution. Using a large‐scale remote
time‐lapse camera network and a modeling framework adapted from
capture‐recapture studies, we assess drivers of intra‐ and inter‐annual
dynamics in gentoo penguin breeding success across nearly the entire
species’ range in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. We quantify
the precise timing of egg/chick mortality within each season and examine
the role of precipitation events, tourism visitation, and fishing activity
for Antarctic krill Euphausia superba (a principal prey resource in the
Antarctic) in these processes. We find that nest failure rates are higher
in the egg than the chick stage and that neither krill fishing nor tourism
visitation had a strong effect on gentoo penguin breeding success. While
precipitation events had, on average, little effect on nest mortality,
results suggest that extreme weather events can precipitate sharp
increases in nest failure. This study highlights the importance of
continuous ecosystem monitoring, facilitated here by remote time‐lapse
cameras, in understanding ecological responses to environmental stressors,
particularly with regard to the timing of events such as extreme weather.