Dr Andre Chiaradia

Research Scientist

       Email:  achiaradia@penguins.org.au

       Phone: + 61 (3) 59512849

       Mail:     Phillip Island Nature Parks, PO Box 97, Cowes Vic. 3922, Australia

Main research areas

Foraging ecology, seabirds, trophic interactions, food webs

Current projects

• Trophic changes on the Little penguin food webs – effect of the pilchard mortality
• Diet of penguins at St Kilda and Phillip Island
• Penguins’ response to climatic variability
• Connectivity of diving behaviour to age and experience and breeding success on the Little penguin
• Changes in the Little penguins and short-tailed shearwaters food web over 100 years
• Integrating long-term diving behaviour and isotope diet
• The effect of thermoclines and climate change in the foraging efficiency of Little penguins
• Foraging ecology of Little penguins at St Kilda
• Monitoring body mass of Little penguins
• Effect of the nest temperature on the nest selection and breeding success
• Attendance and foraging ecology of Little penguins during non-breeding
• Growth of Little penguin chicks

Research life

My research field is on prey-predator relationships and interactions with their environment using Little Penguins as case study. This is multidisciplinary program aims to study in a fine scale how a top marine predator responds to natural changes in the marine system and ways to predict their response or adjustment to future environmental changes, like climatic changes. Together with collaborators (over 20 scientists = past and present) from all continents, we have developed more sensitive variables such as foraging efficiency, changes in trophic position, presence/absence of thermoclines, foraging trip duration and offspring growth parameters to detect environmental changes, complementing more traditional variables of population size, mortality or survival.

As a rewarding result of these collaborations, I have been involved in the supervision of 21 past and current students at honours (12), master (4), PhD (4) and post doc (1) level in the field of seabird ecology. Twenty of these theses were on Little penguin foraging ecology. As result of these collaborations, we have published over 30 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals on foraging behaviour of Little penguins.

The ultimate aim of my research is to understand better how penguins interact with their prey and environment, which is crucial to the long-term protection of penguins and integral part of this proposal.

Current post graduate students & co-supervisors

• Nicole Kowalczyk. Trophic interaction of Little penguins at St Kilda: predator-prey relationships in limited a foraging zone and on a specialised diet. (Ph.D., Monash University – Richard Reina).
• Laure Pelletier. The thermal structure of the water column in the foraging zone of Little penguins: influence of stratified waters on hunting efficiency and breeding success at Phillip Island. (PhD, Universite Strasbourg – Yan Ropert-Coudert).
• Darren Steiert. First attendance and breeding of young Little penguins (B.Sc. Hons., Monash University - Richard Reina).

Selected recent publications (Also see in Google Scholar)

Ropert-Coudert Y, Kato K and Chiaradia A.(2009). The impact of small-scale environmental perturbations on marine predators. Proceedings Royal Society B: 276, 4105-4109.

We found Little Penguins feeding preferentially around thermoclines, Extreme weather events are expected to increase due to predicted climate changes which will disperse the thermoclines; decreasing penguin foraging success.

Chiaradia A and Nisbet ICT. (2006). Plasticity in parental provisioning and chick growth in little penguins in years of high and low breeding success. Ardea 94: 257-270.

This paper on response of inshore seabirds to years of distinct breeding success showed that chick responses were related to annual productivity; which can be used as food availability index.

Chiaradia A, Costalunga A and Kerry K. (2003). The diet of little penguins Eudyptula minor at Phillip Island following the 1995 mass mortality of one of their main prey, the pilchard Sardinops sagax. Emu 103: 43 - 48.

It reports a dramatic change in the diet of penguins following massive mortality of pilchards, once penguins’ major prey.

Daniel T, Chiaradia A, Logan M, Quinn G and Reina R. (2007). Synchronised group association in little penguins (Eudyptula minor). Animal Behaviour. 74: 1241-1248.

We showed for the first time on penguins that they form non-randomly groups in years of high breeding success, but not in years of low breeding success.

Deagle BE, Chiaradia A, McInnes J and Jarman SN. (2010). Pyrosequencing faecal DNA to determine diet of little penguins: is what. goes in what comes out? Conservation Genetics. 11: 2039-2048.

We have trialled this technique on captive penguins which provided quantitate interpretations of dietary barcoding data showing that DNA sequences can be useful for diet studies such as this proposal.

Chiaradia A, Forero MG, Cullen M and Hobson KA. (2010). Changes in diet and trophic position of a top predator ten years after a mass mortality of a key prey. ICES Journal of Marine Science. 67: 1710-1720.

After 10 years, the disappearance of pilchard resulted in a decrease in prey diversity and led penguins to “fish up” the foodweb, possibly because of the simplified trophic structure.

Saraux C, Robinson-Laverick S M, Le Maho Y, Ropert-Coudert Y and Chiaradia A. (2011). Plasticity in foraging strategies of inshore birds: how Little Penguins maintain body reserves while feeding offspring: Ecology 92: 1909-1916.

It showed that inshore seabirds like Little penguins do have an elaborate foraging plan, alternating long and short foraging trips to provide to their young and self-maintenance.

Zimmer I, Ropert-Coudert Y, Kato A, Ancel A and Chiaradia A. (2011). Does foraging performance change with age in female little penguins (Eudyptula minor)? PLoS ONE 6(1): e16098. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016098.

We found that middle aged females were better foragers than young/old females. The middle age group has good fitness and experience so they may respond better to negative environmental changes.

Preston TJ, Chiaradia A and Reina R. (2010). Fine scale tracking and biologging for conservation of an inshore marine animal. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 390(2): 196-202.

This study showed distinct advantages of combined GPS-TDR loggers that can provide simultaneous information on the penguin's three-dimensional space; essential information in conservation applications for animals with limited foraging ranges.

Chiaradia A, Forero MG, Hobson KA, Swearer SE, Hume F, Renwick L and Dann D. (2012). Diet segregation between two colonies of little penguins (Eudyptula minor). Austral Ecology 37: 610–619.

This study revealed diet segregation between colonies with close proximity. We found diet composition and isotopic values were different but with no effect in prey quality (similar protein levels).

Recent collaborators

Dr Richard Reina	Monash University, Australia
Dr Yan Ropert-Coudert	Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, France
Dr Akiko Kato	National Institute of Polar Research, Japan
Dr Manuela Forero	Estación Ecológica Doñana, Spain
Dr. Ian Nisbet	Visiting Fellow from Boston, USA
Dr Thomas Mattern	University of Otago, New Zealand
Dr Bruce Deagle	Australian Antarctic Division
Dr Simon Jarman	Australian Antarctic Division
Dr Murray Logan	Monash University, Australia
Dr Keith Hobson	Environment Canada
Dr Nathan Knott	University of New South Wales, Australia
Fiona Hume	Visiting Fellow from Tasmania
Dr Steven Swearer	University of Melbourne, Australia
Prof Gerry Quinn	Deakin University, Australia
Dr Akinori Takahashi	National Institute of Polar Research, Japan
Kym Newberry	Australian Antarctic Division
Dr John McBride	Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre,
Dr André Ancel	Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, France
Dr Joan Navarro	Estación Ecológica Doñana, Spain
Dr Steve Oswald	Pennsylvania State University, USA
A/Prof Jennifer Arnold	Pennsylvania State University, USA
Dr Laura Jordan	University of Florida, USA