Wayne Z. Trivelpiece, Ph.D.

Research

Wayne Trivelpiece is the leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. Antarctic seabird research group at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. He has worked in the Antarctic since 1976, studying the breeding biology, foraging ecology, and population demography of a unique three-species penguin colony in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Trivelpiece’s Pew fellowship focused on addressing changes in the Antarctic food web, particularly in relation to krill and their dependent predator populations (e.g., whales, penguins, seals) and the precautionary catch limits for the krill fishery. He coordinated an effort to unite research data from U.S. scientists working for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Antarctic Marine Living Resources program into one historic international database to be archived at the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Australia. Trivelpiece also launched a study of the at-sea behaviors of Antarctic penguins using satellite tags to acquire data on the areas utilized by penguins while foraging at sea. This research was designed to better estimate the potential overlap between areas of penguin foraging and krill fishery activities. Trivelpiece oversaw a major Antarctic predator-prey study as well. As a result of his fellowship, Trivelpiece co-authored a paper entitled “Effects of Sea-Ice Extent and Krill or Salp Dominance on the Antarctic Food Web” that has had a major impact on the Antarctic scientific community and has been cited as one of the best examples illustrating the potential impacts of global warming on biotic systems.