Penguin Colony Geospatial Data from Antarctic Islands

1982 aerial photography of penguin colonies on islands approximately 12km northeast of Brattstrand Bluff, Antarctica, was digitized into DXF files and later georeferenced into a shapefile. The dataset includes digitized colony boundaries and four supporting photographs from 2009. Work was contributed by Eric Woehler, John Cox, Tom Velthuis, and Ursula Harris of the Australian Antarctic Data Centre.

Use Cases

• Mapping penguin colony boundaries from the digitized DXF and shapefile data for population density studies.
• Analyzing colony location and size using the georeferenced shapefile overlaid on satellite imagery.
• Validating modern colony surveys by comparing with historical 1982 aerial photography and 2009 ground photographs.

Strengths

• Includes georeferenced shapefile of colony boundaries for GIS analysis.
• Combines 1982 aerial survey data with 2009 ground verification photographs.

Limitations

• Original aerial photographs and the described GIS data are not available in the archive.
• The accuracy of the georeferenced shapefile data is explicitly noted as unknown.
• Sample size is limited to colonies on a small group of islands.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC).

Collection Method

Aerial photography (35mm film) digitized into DXF files, later georeferenced over satellite imagery to create a shapefile.

Time Range

Primary data from 1982, with supplementary photographs from 2009.

Freshness

Historical data from 1982, with a metadata update in May 2015.

Geography

Islands northeast of Brattstrand Bluff, Antarctica, at approximately latitude 69.148°S, longitude 77.268°E.