ABSTRACT
Visitor Site Guidelines are the principal instruments guiding tourist activities and behaviour at intensively visited sites. These instruments attempt to minimize tourist impacts on Antarctic wildlife, including penguins. However, some recommendations still need to be reinforced by empirical research. Although penguins have enjoyed considerable research attention, a knowledge gap still exists regarding penguins' behavioural responses to realistic tourist activities, including talking sound, viewing distance and movement speed. To fill this gap, we conducted a series of experiments to simulate these activities on two penguin species breeding at an intensively visited site during the 2019-2020 season. We performed 106 replicates of passive and active human presence treatments. Responses varied between species, but active human presence consistently triggered significantly higher responses of strong vigilance behaviour. Our results reinforce Visitor Site Guidelines' recommendations of keeping quiet, moving slowly and increasing viewing distance if changes in behaviour are observed. We also recommend adopting a more conservative viewing distance in the early breeding season. Additional management-orientated empirical studies are needed, including on different species, sites and stages of the breeding season, as such results are valuable for strengthening tourism guidelines and assessing the efficacy of management measures under a post-COVID-19 scenario of increasing Antarctic tourism.
ABSTRACT
Human activities in Antarctica were increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, and tourism was not an exception. The growth and diversification of Antarctic tourism over the last few decades have been extensively studied. However, environmental impacts associated with this activity have received less attention despite an increasing body of scholarship examining environmental issues related to Antarctic tourism. Aside from raising important research questions, the potential negative effects of tourist visits in Antarctica are also an issue discussed by Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties. This study presents the results of a meta-analysis of scholarly publications that synthesizes and updates our current knowledge of environmental impacts resulting from Antarctic tourism. A first publication database containing 233 records that focussed on this topic was compiled and subjected to a general bibliometric and content analysis. Further, an in-depth content analysis was performed on a subset of 75 records, which were focussed on showing specific research on Antarctic tourism impacts. The main topic, methods, management proposals, and research gaps highlighted by the respective authors of these 75 publications were assessed. The range of research topics addressed, the methods used - including the application of established research designs from the field of environmental impact assessment -, and the conclusions reached by the study authors are discussed. Interestingly, almost one third of the studies did not detect a direct relationship between tourism and significant negative effects on the environment. Cumulative impacts of tourism have received little attention, and long-term and comprehensive monitoring programs have been discussed only rarely, leading us to assume that such long-term programs are scarce. More importantly, connections between research and policy or management do not always exist. This analysis highlights the need for a comprehensive strategy to investigate and monitor the environmental impacts of tourism in Antarctica. A first specific research and monitoring programme to stimulate a debate among members of the Antarctic scientific and policy communities is proposed, with the ultimate goal of advancing the regulation and management of Antarctic tourism collaboratively.