Project Grant 2535124

The National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs awarded Arizona State University $118,766 on September 1, 2026, under the Polar Programs assistance listing (CFDA 47.078) to fund a collaborative research project tracking Adélie penguin populations across two Antarctic regions with opposing population trajectories to identify behavioral and physiological factors enabling adaptation to environmental change.

Research activities include deploying satellite tracking tags on fledgling penguins to map migration routes and survival rates during first-year ocean journeys, retrieving recording devices from adult penguins to document molt timing, diving depth, and frequency during winter months, and collecting blood samples to determine ancestral relationships and population mixing between Ross Sea and Antarctic Peninsula colonies. The project will generate oceanographic data including temperature measurements from a remote region during its least-studied season. The funding period runs through August 31, 2028, with place of performance in Tempe, Arizona. The project supports doctoral student training and a field apprentice position while continuing decades of long-term monitoring and includes public education through the penguinscience.com website and live video calls documenting penguin colony and breeding behavior.