Data from: Extreme ecological response of a seabird community to unprecedented sea ice cover

Climate change has been predicted to reduce Antarctic sea ice but,
instead, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has expanded over the past 30
years, albeit with contrasted regional changes. Here we report a recent
extreme event in sea ice conditions in East Antarctica and investigate its
consequences on a seabird community. In early 2014, the Dumont
d'Urville Sea experienced the highest magnitude sea ice cover (76.8%)
event on record (1982–2013: range 11.3–65.3%; mean±95% confidence
interval: 27.7% (23.1–32.2%)). Catastrophic effects were detected in the
breeding output of all sympatric seabird species, with a total failure for
two species. These results provide a new view crucial to predictive models
of species abundance and distribution as to how extreme sea ice events
might impact an entire community of top predators in polar marine
ecosystems in a context of expanding sea ice in eastern Antarctica.