Breeding bird species richness and sensitivity to disturbance at Antarctic visitor sites

Tourism in Antarctica is increasing rapidly and is concentrated predominantly in ice-free areas in the Antarctic Peninsula region, an area that holds globally important colonies of breeding birds. Since 2005, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM), which provides governance for the continent, has developed Visitor Site Guidelines that detail practical information for visitor management. In parallel, the ATCM has worked to develop methods to assess site sensitivity to inform visitor site management, but none have been formally agreed. With the expansion of tourism operations, there is an urgent need for site-specific information to enable policymakers to minimize disturbance at visitor sites, particularly to breeding seabirds. Responding to this need, we assessed the sensitivity of bird species known to breed at each landing site with ATCM Visitor Site Guidelines. We collated available data on breeding cycles for each site, identifying the most sensitive periods for individual bird species. The information was combined to determine species richness and the periods of heightened sensitivity to disturbance overall and for each visitor site. Our data showed that the most sensitive bird breeding stages overlapped with the summer peak in tourist landings at visitor sites. We recommend that these site-specific data be used to refine tourism management by the ATCM, including revision of existing and development of new Visitor Site Guidelines. Future studies could help improve sensitivity assessment by collecting data on distribution and numbers of breeding birds and hauled-out seals within visited areas, and carrying out cross-species comparisons of effects of disturbance.